Day 166: WTHeck is going on?

I LOVE donating blood.  I've been doing it for years and try to do it whenever I can.  I'm nearly to the two gallon mark--maybe I've passed it already? I need to remember to check so I can get my license plate holder saying, "I'm a 2 gallon donor."  Call me a weirdo, but I like having that on my car.

Needless to say, I've never had an issue when donating.  Actually, I take that back.  When I was in college, I had an incomplete donation.  Turns out, if it's hot and you are a little low on water before going in, your blood can be too thick and stop flowing...right in the middle of a donation.  Yeah, that happened once, but I've never been turned away...until today.

I sat down behind the private curtains with the lady and she checked all my vitals.  Blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, all normal, and then she pricked my finger.  Normally, the tech has to squeeze hard to get a big enough drop to fill up the glass vile.  Not this time.  I noticed she was sucking it up as the blood drop slid down my finger. That caught my attention, but I didn't think it was a big deal.

"Do you usually have a problem with this?" she asked, as the little ball of blood didn't sink in the blue liquid.

"Not usually, but it usually hovers for a sec until in falls to the bottom.  Why?"

She walked over to a machine that was out of my sight, I heard it whirl behind me as I waited.  Soon, it beeped and the tech came back and told me I couldn't donate today but that I could come back in three weeks and try again.

This has never happened to me before and I'm a little frustrated with my body right now as it's freaking out on me.  I have noticed that I've been extra tired lately, I just thought it was the heat and my hubby's snoring.  Guess it was something more.  I've also been a bit more stiff and sore than usual too, I need to research Fibromyalgia more thoroughly.  I'm SO grateful I have the habit of working out every day or who know how I'd be feeling like right now.

Now more than ever, I really need to be stepping it up.  I need to be more balanced in my eating and adding more to my exercise regimen.  It's a reminder to never get complacent.  Health is ongoing and how we take care of our body needs to adjust as our needs do.  It's my journey and I now have an unexpected detour. No worries though, it's all a lesson on adjusting to the unexpected.

Exercise and Weight Loss – Getting the Balance Right

When it comes to exercise, it’s often difficult to know where to start. There are many different approaches from ‘do it yourself’ gym memberships, group exercise, personal trainers. The Biggest Loser television program provides an extreme view of exercise and weight loss. Don’t forget contestants are recommended to consume only 1200 calories per day compared to their pre-program intake of 5,000 plus calories per day reminding us that calorie control is the first step in any weight loss journey. Calorie control comes from the quality and quantity of food we consume.

The Goal

There is no right or wrong answer but you need to find a routine that is going to complement your goals. Are you trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or just improve your fitness? Also it needs to be practical for your lifestyle and still allows time for adequate rest. With weight loss, the primary goal of exercise is calorie expenditure from burning fat as the preferred fuel for our muscles. But if your exercise intensity is too high, then your body switches to burning stored sugars for fuel and tiredness and hunger can set in. Going too hard, too early can also lead to soreness and injury and a feeling of it’s not going to work. So working out with a personal trainer can be great for working up a sweat but not so great for weight loss.

Frequency and Consistency

With any form of exercise frequency and consistency are the key. Establishing some form of physical activity that is a regular part of your routine, 4-6 days per week, is ideal. Choosing the right exercise is simple, walking, gym classes, swimming, riding and even the Wii fit are all good options, as long as you are getting your heart rate up for an extended period, preferably 30 mins or more. Increasing your heart rate to the right intensity means you will burn fat as the preferred fuel source, the longer you do it the more you burn.

Enjoyment

When the alarm goes at 5:30am getting out of bed for something we enjoy makes it a lot easier. So think about an activity you will still enjoy on the days when you are lacking motivation or tired? We recommend walking as the best option because walking means putting on some decent shoes and heading out the door for half an hour. It also is the most efficient way to mainly burn fat during exercise. Other exercises like cycling or swimming are also great for elevating your heart rate and what is even better is varying your routine between all three to really add some spice to your routine. Activities you can do with other people give you that motivation not to miss a session.

Burning Fat = Losing Weight

During exercise fats and carbohydrates are metabolized for energy. As exercise intensity increases the fuel mix needed changes from predominantly fat to stored sugars. Our body stores sugars in the liver and muscles but only enough for several hours of intense exercise so when these stores are used they will need to be replenished through diet. That is what marathon runners do during a race. Burning fat stores is what we want to achieve when losing or maintaining weight is our goal. This occurs at lower exercise intensities. Each kg of fat stored has enough stored energy to power us for 25 hours of walking or150 kilometres at a brisk walking speed.

How Hard
Intensity (or heart rate achieved) of exercise is a critical aspect when it comes to weight loss and weight management. Intensity can be broken into ranges from light through to vigorous which is determined by the energy demands placed on the body. As exercise intensity increases so do the body’s responses, including higher respiratory rates, increased blood flow to the large muscle groups and the greater need for nutrients and fuel.

Heart Rate for Burning Fat as the Preferred Fuel Source
Heart rate and age are often used to estimate a target heart rate range for fat burning
Minimum target heart rate = (220 – age) x 65%

Maximum target heart rate = (220 – age) x 75%

For example, a 40 year old person’s minimum target heart rate is calculated as:

(220 – 40) x 0.65 = 180 x 0.65 = 117 beats per minute

Their maximum target heart rate is calculated as:

(220 – 40) x 0.75 = 180 x 0.75 = 135 beats per minute

So in this example keeping our heart rate between 117 and 135 beats per minute will keep us burning fat as our primary fuel source.

Tips

Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs) are an accurate way of recording your exercise intensity. Another rule of thumb is to make sure you can still hold a conversation while exercising. If your breathing rate is so high that you can’t talk, then you are probably burning sugars and not fat.

Routine
Completing your exercise sessions at the same time each day can be very helpful and enable you to stick to routine more effectively as well as eliminating any exercise-related motivational issues you may have. Initially, you may find that your exercise intensity is the component you find the most difficult to keep up, however this will ease over time as your body adapts to the routine and becomes fitter.

running burn fat, 9 tips to burn more fat effectivly.

Do not eat before running for an one hour to 2 hours.  

2- Drink 2 cups of water before running by 2 hours and another cup directly before starting.

3- Running after sunset in my opinion the best so as to provide air and also after the practice run will be easier for you to sleep.

4 - Walk a quick walk before running for 10 minutes, to warm the body because it is wrong to practice running or any sport without heating the body.

5- Do not compare yourself to any other person .. For example, a friend of yours in running, such as your companion may harm you
.

6 - Keep on Running in the beginning of a certain rate every two weeks, simple or 3 weeks, then increase the rate by low degree

7 - At the beginning of streaming does not raise the speed .. To test your speed and you are running, try to speak "If you understanding the words, increase the speed  ... However, if your words hard to understand from the lower speed.

8- Do not worry if your day is not as the yesterday, but try make more efforts and do not punish your self.

9- After finishing running try to prolong your muscles specially muscles of legs.  

What Type of Running Benefits You the Most?
Interval training, is the form of running that is most efficient for fat burning. It includes alternate sessions of intense workout and resting exercise. Ideally, a 4 minute intense workout session is most efficient in controlling weight. However, if you are over weight, then a 12 minute interval training will suit you the best. It includes, alternate sessions of walking and running for 12 minutes. This type of running gives you the same result, as a 4 minute intense workout.

How to Start Burning Fat with Running?
If you are already engaged in any kind of sport and have the required stamina, then you can straightway start with a 4 minute intense training program. Else, you can go for 12 minute interval training. Brisk walk for about a minute, then increase your speed and jog for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Slow down and again walk for a minute. Keep repeating the procedure for 12 minutes. Gradually, you can increase the duration of both the intense periods and the resting periods. Do this exercise for about 2-3 times a week.

How Does Running Burn Fat ?
Many people are of the opinion that walking exercise on the tread mill, at a moderate pace, burns more calories than running. However, one must understand that when you walk on the treadmill, the calories that you burn come only from the fat, whereas when you run, the amount of calories you burn come from the entire body mass. Obviously, it means that although you burn less calories from the fat, you still burn more calories when it comes to the total number of calories burnt. Thus, running helps you to burn excess calories and eventually results in fat loss.

Is Running the Best Way to Burn Fat?
Yes and no. Running is the best way to burn fat if you a have only a few pounds in excess, or already have a toned body which you wish to maintain. However, if you are overweight or downright obese, then running can do more harm than good. You are at the risk of damaging your joints by subjecting them to a lot of stress. Overweight people can benefit more from combination exercises, than running. Exercises such as brisk walking, skipping, stationary bicycle etc. performed every few days a week, alternately, can be more efficient in burning fat than running.

If you are running to burn fat, there are number of ways in which your body will be benefited. Not only running boosts your metabolism, it also regulates the fat-muscle ratio and helps to tone your body. However, while running, always make sure to run on a soft surface. Hard surfaces like concrete can give you a lot of foot problems. Similarly, buy a pair of good quality running shoes to give your feet maximum comfort

 article source http://www.howtoloseweighthealthy.com/

.

Stay Cool This Summer – How to Avoid Heat Illness

Despite what has been an unseasonably mild summer to date, the hotter days are becoming more frequent and it is important to be aware of the dangers of exercising during this time of year. Summer climates increase the risk of developing heat illnesses such as heat stroke when exercising, resulting in many debilitating health complications such as:

• Feelings of tiredness, weakness, dizziness and faintness
• Dehydration and headaches
• Excessive fatigue
• Heat cramps

So what can you do to help yourself avoid these possible side effects?

Pre-exercise

• Hydrate effectively – Daily water requirements during summer increase to a minimum of 4L per day
• Drink 2-3 cups of water 2 hours before and 1 cup 10-15min before undertaking exercise
• Avoid hot foods, alcohol and heavy foods that increase your core temperature
• Choose lightweight, light-colored and loose-fitting clothing as well as wearing a hat
• Use sun block with an SPF rating of 15+ or higher

During exercise

• Avoid exercise during the hottest time of day; train closer to sunrise or sunset
• Drink 1 cup of water every 15minutes throughout exercise
• If you feel any headaches, fatigue or irritability or notice your exercise performance decreasing, stop exercising and cool off

Post-exercise

• Weigh yourself before and after exercise and replace any lost fluids accordingly
• Drink 1.5L of water for every kilogram of fluid you lost during exercise
• Try to avoid too much sports drink, however for intense exercise above 60min, these may help to further accelerate water intake after exercise in the heat

Remember: Planning ahead for exercise in the heat will assist you in avoiding the health complications associated with heat illness this summer.

References

3/365 - Something I've come to realize.

2/365 - Surprised!

I'm amazed at how quickly my body got out of shape. I swear I just worked out a few weeks ago and I didn't notice anything different from the norm. Last night when I hopped onto the elliptical I did a shorter and lower resistance workout than I'm used to. The workout didn't feel bad, but I could tell it didn't feel as easy either.

By the time I finished 15 minutes, I was sweaty and breathing heavy--certainly not how I used to feel walking off the machine.  I admit, I was a bit surprised. (I mentioned I lightened the workout since it has been a bit since I last did it, right?)

Although I was surprised walking off the machine, you can imagine my shock when I started to feel sore a few hours later. Seriously? I cannot believe I got out of shape as quickly or as badly as I did.  I'm relearning that taking care of your health is a daily thing, not just when you "have a goal" or when it's convenient.

1/365 - Happy New Year 2011

As I sit here ready for the new year to begin, there are many thoughts floating around my head.

Excitement. Trepidation. Hope. Fear.

I've had weight loss successes before. I went to Diet Center (A local weight loss clinic in town) while I was in Jr. High and lost 20 pounds. I was a size 6 afterwards. After my second baby, I lost 50 pounds with Weight Watchers. I was a size 8 when I hit goal.  I have had my moment to shine and feel triumphant.  I also know it was because of a program I lost it.  As soon as I was done with the program, it slowly came back. Every time. I have learned since, that programs, for me, don't work in the long term.

In 2009, for the first time in my life, I lost weight on my own. 40 pounds of weight was gone because of my efforts. No program. No help. Just me. Success has never been so sweet. Without making an official "weight loss" goal, I finished the year pretty close to where I need to be to have a healthy BMI. I was a size 10/12 and I was happy with my body for the first time in my life.

2010 wasn't so sweet.  I started the year out strong, but slowly lost momentum. I thought about doing a 720 days of workout challenge, but decided to take Sundays completely off. It was for good reason, Sundays are a special day for me. Unfortunately, once you miss a day in a long streak, it's easy to make it two. The cycle then begins. I thought about doing another 365 day goal starting mid-year, but that didn't work. (Refer to my recent vlog where I discuss why) For me, I need to be a bit OCD with my goals or its easy for me to sabotage my efforts. I've learned this. It's how I roll.

I now end 2010 feeling like I never had a success at all. I had a very rough year, probably the toughest in my life and I took it out on myself.  Writing was a wonderful, creative escape but I stopped working out when I started to write. Sometimes it was because I didn't want to take a break from writing, but mostly it's because I forgot to workout until it was midnight and too late to do it.  (My husband needs to be up early and the elliptical is in our bedroom)  Over time, poor eating habits returned and a few pounds were found before the holiday season began.  By the time December came, I was in full blown binge mode. Right now I feel like I never made a change to begin with.

Weight loss efforts has such an ugly side. When making positive choices we are moving forward, learning, becoming better, it feels great. But once you have a weight problem caused by bad habits, those habits can so easily be found no matter how long time has elapsed. Especially when life gets challenging.  I chose to put "Journey" in the name of this blog because that is exactly what it is.  There really is no end. Constant vigilance needs to be there or we'll find ourselves in a place we don't want to be.  That dark ugly place that is so familiar.

As I sit here, my pants feel tight and my body feels flabby. I can literally feel the newly formed fat on my legs.The thought of eating any sweets right now makes my stomach turn because the over-sugared, over-fill feeling is nauseating. I'm so sick of eating right now--the idea of a week long fast sounds inviting. Actually, my body would probably benefit from a good fast too.

I'm excited for 2011. It holds promise. I also start it somewhat ticked off at myself and determined to do better. I know I can do it, I've done it before. But there is always a fear in the back of my head. What if? I'm happy to say that I have pushed my what ifs to the back of my brain and ignoring them. I plan on getting up tomorrow and ending the day on the elliptical, doing my workout. I'm not going to focus on all the things I should do better like getting up earlier, eating better, planning better, spending less time on the computer, being outside more, etc. I'm only going to focus on one thing, my work outs. I know me. If I try to do too many changes at once, I will fail. Guaranteed. But if I focus on one thing, I know I can do it.  Keep things simple and it's easier to make changes. That's my plan.

2011 Workout Goal

WEIGHT LOSS YOGA POWER HALF HOUR PART 4 OF 4: DEEP STRETCH AND BODY RESET

WEIGHT LOSS YOGA POWER HALF HOUR PART 3 OF 4: WALL INVERSIONS AND ARM

Exercise is Your Free Way To Weight Loss

The main question is our motivation to start our daily exercise. Experts say that 30 minute exercise a day is a very effective and fast way to lose those fats. Nevertheless, it does not mean that you cant exercise if you couldn't do the 30 minute requirement. Exercising in 10 to 15 minutes a day will also make a development in your physique.
Simple tasks like household chores is considered exercising. Walking is a good option for you. You can use treadmill machine, do dancing, biking and swimming too. If people love these hobbies,chances are exercising will be easy as they are doing what they love. And since you love what you are doing, you are not force to do it in a daily or regular basis. You can easily form good exercise habit within yourself.

Beginners are often confuse on what set of exercise to try. In this article I will try to discuss some basic steps and facts that a beginners should learn.

Ensuring your Healthy Enough to Exercise

To prepare yourself, know your body limitations and your physical condition. Better to ask your doctor and ask any health risks that you might have. You dont want to exercise without knowing that you have an injury on the part you are working on. Dont risk your health by making personal guesses. Always consult your doctor and get a medical clearance.

Basic Things You Have to Know

1. Know your Personal and Basic Goals

Are you exercising because you want to join a marathon? Then level of exercise should be set according to your goal.In this case, you have to exercise daily or take a walk in regular basis.

Do you want to lose weight in a certain period? Are you aiming to lose a certain level of weight? These are some questions you want to clear up in order to set your goal.

2.Avoid Setting Idiot Goals

This means that your goals should be reasonable and realistic. Dont aim to lose weight in two days of exercising. This kind of thinking put your inner self to a lot of pressure and stress. Stress is not good for free and fast weight lose.

3.Take Baby Step

Dont push your body too much by exercising strenuously. You will find yourself so tired halfway and lose the enough energy and drive you need. Take little step one at a time. Let you body get used to the flow and move in a slow but steady pace.

4.Be careful

Think about your body. You are not exercising to destroy it. Know when you have to rest and stop. Listen on what your body tells you.

On my next post, I will discuss more about exercise basic related terms. It is important for us to learn exercise as our free and fast way to weight loss.

  atricle  source www.healthyweightlossfacts.com/

Why Proactol Works For Weight Loss: Reviewing The Research (Part 1)

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions around the world and now affects hundreds of millions of people. Obesity increases the risk of many negative health conditions like stroke, heart attack, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Usually the result of an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, obesity is treated through dieting, exercise, pharmacology, and surgery.

Exercise and dieting can prove fruitful only if an individual is capable of following a regular routine over a long period of time. However, many people struggling with obesity find it difficult to keep to their dieting routine, which results in failed attempts at treating obesity.

Of course, there are pharmacological options available to treat obesity. Drugs like sibutramine, phentermine, and orlistat are often prescribed to those trying to

lose weight

. Many of these drugs offer promising initial results. However, these treatments are linked to rebound weight gain. Additionally, they can prove addictive and sometimes have unwanted side effects.

Surgical interventions on the other hand, have been used to treat special cases of obesity. However these procedures are often dangerous and lead to permanent changes to the digestive system. Surgery is rarely the right choice.

Due to the low success rate of so many conventional treatments for obesity, more people turn to herbal medicine. Recently,

herbal remedies for weight loss

have garnered much attention. Many people seek natural remedies because they dislike the side effects of pharmacological options. Go to Proactol web page right now.

When Exercise Is Not Enough

It may seem unusual, but often exercise is not always enough to prompt fat loss, even if you are eating correctly...



However, if you are working out and still putting on excess lbs, you may need to contemplate including the following techniques into your

fat loss program

.

• 1. Go to your doctors
  
  There might be a medical reason why you are putting on excess lbs including hypothyroidism, stress, the menopause or certain prescription medications. Because of this attend your physician, get them to assess you and tell them your fat loss problems.
  
  
• 2. Check your heart and breathing
  
  The simplest way to review this is by using the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion, and ensuring you are running enough to guarantee results, but not so full on that you are causing yourself to gasp for air. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 sleeping and 10 running full pelt), you should be around a 6 or a 7.
  
  
• 3. Start a food diary
  
  No matter how much you work out, if you are eating too many calories this can lead to weight gain. The problem many of us have is under guessing our calorie content. Even the littlest of drinks - crisp or a cappuccino - can add tonnes of calories to your daily content.
  
  To discover if you are unintentionally letting calories slip under your mouth try weighing, measuring and keeping track of everything you eat and drink in a food diary. Then, at the end of each day, sit down and count how many calories you have had over the course of the day.
  
  You will quickly be able to discover which snacks are making problems. However, for added support talk to a nutritionist who can help you to discover your strengths and your weaknesses.
  
  
• 4. Try a pedometer
  
  Supposedly for every 2,000 steps you take per day, you can burn roughly 100 calories. To figure out how far you walk each day begin using a pedometer and keeping track of how many steps you take in a week. If for example you are already doing 10,000 steps, boost this by another 2,000 to get the results you crave.
  
  
  
  
• 5. Start strength training
  
  Muscle is more active metabolically than fat, so by including strength training to your exercise plan 3 times per week, you can gradually enhance your lean tissue mass and speed up your metabolic rate.
  
  For maximum results, aim to utilise free weights, resistance bands and exercise machines...
  
  
• 6. Quicken your pace
  
  As with many things in life, it is simple to get into a rut with your exercise routine. Try pushing yourself further by including quick bouts of fast-paced training such as cycling. Attempt to cycle as fast as you can for 30 seconds (every 3 to 5 minutes) or including hills to your running program.
  
  
• 7. Stay focused
  
  It is easy to get distracted by the numbers on your bathroom scales, especially if your daily routine is the same. Instead, try mixing up your exercise routine by doing a new activity, listening to fast-paced music and most importantly ensuring you focus on feeling positive and healthy.
  
  
• 8. Get plenty of sleep
  
  Sleep is essential. Sleep infrequently and this can cause your body to start putting on fat. Equally, being tired all day can prompt you to eat more as a means of deal in, contributing to extra weight gain. To overcome this, attempt to nap for roughly 6-8 hours every day.
  
  For permanent

  successful fat loss

  , it is important that you find an equilibrium between your nutritional content and work out routine. However, to help give your diet a boost, the help of a credible fat loss pill can help.
  
  Scientifically tested through 6 medical trials, Proactol has been found to make up to 28% of your daily fat content indigestible, reduce your cravings, improve your cholesterol levels and double your energy; the perfect combo for helping your fat loss to go in the correct direction.
  

Click here to learn our secret way for a quick weight loss

Hanging off the wagon by a shoelace.

So I haven't been the best example lately.  The elliptical trainer is dusty and I couldn't tell you the last time I was on it.  I also haven't been eating as well as I should, but I haven't been completely out of control either. This is probably because there isn't anything in the house to snack on, or I would be. (I didn't buy snacks this week on purpose) 

Every once and awhile we find ourselves in a place where we wonder how we got there.  I haven't been trying to avoid being healthy, but I certainly haven't been embracing it either.

Today I noticed that my knees were a bit achy.  The ache is a reminder that I am not 19 any more and when I don't workout, my body will remind me of this.  For me, when I don't work out, I slowly gain weight.  Mostly, because I like to eat.  Working out daily and eating the way I do balance each other out.  Take away the exercise and eat a little sloppy in regards to good choices, and the weight returns, quickly.   

Lately, I have been using the exercise excuse that is as old as the existence of stationary bikes.  

"I am just too busy to workout tonight."

Honestly, I'm too busy for my health?  Really? Shouldn't that be a priority?  If we don't make it a priority, our body will certainly make our health a priority when it's taken away.  Health is never more precious than when you aren't in possession of it.  My knees are reminding me daily of this important fact.  I must put working out back into my schedule.

Day 66/365 Dancing

So I did something a little differently today in regards to exercise.  The family and I danced to fun dance mixes in the privacy of our living room.

It was more fun than I would have expected dancing around and having fun. Even our little toddler was in there grooving as well.

We were all sweaty by the time we were finished and I think this might be something we will be doing a bit more of.

What I did today:
Dancing: 30 minutes

Inactivity and Weight Gain

Every now and then I read a paper that restores a little bit of my faith in obesity research. Most of the papers I read in the field pay lip-service to the same tired old stories: thrifty genes; calories in, calories out; energy density; fat intake; gluttony and sloth. None of which make sense upon close examination. The "overweight is due to sloth" theory, in its many forms, is one of the most often repeated. The main evidence for it is that overweight people tend to move less than thin people, which seems to be true. Exercise also burns calories, which can come from fat.

It may sound counterintuitive, but how do we know that inactivity causes overweight and not the other way around? Gary Taubes asked this question in Good Calories, Bad Calories. In other words, isn't it possible that metabolic deregulation could cause both overweight and a reduced activity level? The answer is clearly yes. There are a number of hormones and other factors that influence activity level in animals and humans. For example, the "Zucker fatty" rat, a genetic model of severe leptin resistance, is obese and hypoactive (I wrote about it here). It's actually a remarkable facsimile of the metabolic syndrome. Since leptin resistance typically comes before insulin resistance and predicts the metabolic syndrome, modern humans may be going through a process similar to the Zucker rat.

Back to the paper. Dr. Nicholas Wareham and his group followed 393 healthy white men for 5.6 years. They took baseline measurements of body composition (weight, BMI and waist circumference) and activity level, and then measured the same things after 5.6 years. In a nutshell, here's what they found:

• Sedentary time associates with overweight at any given timepoint. This is consistent with other studies.
• Overweight at the beginning of the study predicted inactivity after 5.6 years.
  
• Inactivity at the beginning of the study was not associated with overweight at the end.

In other words, overweight predicts inactivity but inactivity does not predict overweight. With the usual caveat that these are just associations, this is not consistent with the idea that inactivity causes overweight. It is consistent with the idea that overweight causes inactivity, or they are both caused by something else.

I've pointed out before that the "we're fat because we exercise less" theory is probably incorrect. It's based on assumptions that fall apart on close examination. Exercise is healthy, but it's not the most effective way to achieve or maintain an optimal weight. The body compensates for the calories burned during exercise by a phenomenon known as "hunger". Certain obesity researchers have stubbornly tried to deny this, because it puts a kink in the "calories in, calories out" hypothesis, but anyone who has ever gotten out of their recliner knows it's true. I believe overweight is largely caused by diet composition. If that's the case, then changing diet composition is obviously going to be a more effective treatment than exercise, which doesn't address the root cause of the problem. This idea is supported by numerous diet intervention trials.

Fit at 70

In my professional life, I study neurodegenerative disease, the mechanisms of aging, and what the two have in common. I was reading through a textbook on aging a few months ago, and I came across an interesting series of graphs.

The first graph showed the average cardiorespiratory endurance of Americans at different ages. It peaks around 30 and goes downhill from there. But the author of this chapter was very intelligent; he knew that averages sometimes conceal meaningful information. The second graph showed two lines: one representing a man who was sedentary, and the other representing a man who exercised regularly for his entire life. The data were from real individuals. The endurance of the first man basically tracked the national average as he aged. The endurance of the second man remained relatively stable from early adulthood until the age of 70, after which it declined noticeably.

We aren't taking care of ourselves for nothing, ladies and gentlemen. We're doing it because the stakes are high. Just look at Jack LaLanne, the fitness buff. He's been working out regularly and eating a whole foods diet since before I was born, and he's still pumping iron every day at 93.

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part III: Insulin

The Kitava study continues to get more and more interesting in later publications. Dr. Lindeberg and his colleagues continued exploring disease markers in the Kitavans, perhaps because their blood lipid findings were not consistent with what one would expect to find in a modern Western population with a low prevalence of CVD.

In their next study, the researchers examined Kitavans' insulin levels compared to Swedish controls. This paper is short but very sweet. Young Kitavan men and women have a fasting serum insulin level considerably lower than their Swedish counterparts (KM 3.9 IU/mL; SM 5.7; KW 3.5; SW 6.2). Kitavan insulin is relatively stable with age, whereas Swedish insulin increases. In the 60-74 year old group, Kitavans have approximately half the fasting serum insulin of Swedes. One thing to keep in mind is that these are average numbers. There is some overlap between the Kitavan and Swedish numbers, with a few Kitavans above the Swedish mean.

In figure 2, they address the possibility that exercise is the reason for Kitavans' low insulin levels. Kitavans have an activity level comparable to a moderately active Swedish person. They divided the Swedes into three categories: low, medium, and high amounts of physical activity at work. The people in the "low" category had the highest insulin, followed by the "high" group and then the "medium" group. The differences were small, however, and Kitavans had far lower serum insulin, on average, than any of the three Swedish groups. These data show that exercise can not explain Kitavans' low insulin levels.

The researchers also found that they could accurately predict average Swedish and Kitavan insulin levels using an equation that factored in age, BMI and waist circumference. This shows that there is a strong correlation between body composition and insulin levels, which applies across cultures.

Now it's time to take a step back and do some interpreting. First of all, this paper is consistent with the idea (but does not prove) that elevated insulin is a central element of overweight, vascular disease and possibly the other diseases of civilization. While we saw previously that mainstream blood lipid markers do not correlate well with CVD or stroke on Kitava, insulin has withstood the cross-cultural test.

In my opinion, the most important finding in this paper is that a high-carbohydrate diet does not necessarily lead to elevated fasting insulin. This is why I think the statement "carbohydrate drives insulin drives fat" is an oversimplification. What drives fat accumulation is chronically high insulin (hyperinsulinemia), which the Kitavans do not have. With a properly-functioning pancreas and insulin-sensitive tissues (which many people in industrial societies do not have), a healthy person can eat a high-carbohydrate meal and keep blood glucose under control. Insulin definitely spikes, but it's temporary. The rest of the day, insulin is at basal levels. The Kitavans show that insulin spikes per se do not cause hyperinsulinemia.

So this leads to the Big Question: what causes hyperinsulinemia?? The best I can give you is informed speculation. Who has hyperinsulinemia? Industrial populations, especially the U.S. and native populations that have adopted Western foods. Who doesn't? Non-industrial populations that have not been affected by Western food habits, including the traditional Inuit, the Kuna, the traditional Masai and the Kitavans.

We can safely rule out that total fat, saturated fat and carbohydrate cause hyperinsulinemia, based on data from the Inuit, the Masai and the Kitavans, respectively. We can also safely rule out that there's some specific food that protects these populations, since they eat completely different things. Exercise is also not a compelling explanation, based on the data above and others. What does that leave us with? Western food habits. In my opinion, the trail of metabolic destruction that has followed Westerners throughout the world is probably due in large part to wheat and refined sugar.

I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, far from it. The idea that specific types of carbohydrate foods, rather than carbohydrate in general, are responsible for the diseases of civilization, has been around for at least a century. It was an inescapable conclusion in the time of Weston Price, when anthropologists and field physicians could observe the transitions of native people to Western diets all over the world. This information has gradually faded from our collective consciousness as native cultures have become increasingly rare. The Kitava study is a helpful modern-day reminder.

What to do if Your Study Contradicts Conventional Wisdom

I just read a recent paper from the British Journal of Sports Medicine, "Daily Energy Expenditure and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Masai, Ruran and Urban Bantu Tanzanians". The study caught my eye because I think we have a lot to learn from healthy traditionally-living populations worldwide.

The Masai have a very unique diet consisting almost exclusively of whole cow's milk, cow's blood and meat. As you might imagine, they eat a lot of fat, a lot of saturated fat and a modest amount of carbohydrate (from lactose). They also have low total cholesterol, low blood pressure, and virtually no overweight. They have been a thorn in the side of the lipid hypothesis for a long time.

The Bantu are an agricultural population that traditionally eat a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrate. Their staples are root vegetables, corn, beans, fish and wild game. The paper also describes a group of urban Bantu, which eats a diet intermediate in fat and carbohydrate. Incidentally, the investigators describe it as a "high-fat diet", despite the fact that the percentage fat is about the same as what Americans and Europeans eat, shamelessly exposing their bias.

The investigators recorded the three groups' diets, activity levels, physical characteristics and various markers of cardiovascular disease risk. Here's what they found: only 3% of Masai were obese, compared to 12% of rural Bantu and 34% of urban Bantu (they'd fit right in here!). The Masai, despite smoking like chimneys, had generally lower CVD risk factors than the other two populations, with the urban Bantu being significantly worse off than the rural Bantu.

Overall, the Masai came out looking really good, with the rural Bantu not too far behind. The urban Bantu look almost as bad as Americans. How do we make sense of these two conflicting facts? 1) The urban Bantu eat an amount of fat and saturated fat that's right in the middle of what the Masai and the rural Bantu eat, yet they seem the most likely to keel over spontaneously. 2) Saturated fat KILLS!! Answer: keep digging until you find something else to blame your results on.

They certainly did find something, and it's the reason the study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine rather than the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The Masai exercise more than either of the other two groups. I don't have too much trouble believing that. However, the authors used a dirty trick to augment their result: they normalized calorie expenditure to body weight. They present their data as kcal/kg/day. In other words, the fatter you are, the lower your apparent energy expenditure! It makes no sense to me. But it does inflate the apparent exercise of the Masai, simply because of the fact that they're thinner than the other two groups.

Due to this unscrupulous number massaging, here's what they got (data re-plotted by me):


I'm going to try to un-massage the data. Here's what it looks like when I factor bodyweight out of the equation. Calories expended (above resting metabolic rate) is on the Y-axis. The bars look a bit closer together...



Here's what it looks like when you add back resting metabolic rate. I assumed 1500 kcal/day. This graph is an approximation of their total energy expenditure per day:



Hmm, the differences keep getting smaller, don't they? I'm not challenging the fact that the Masai exercise more than the other two groups, but I do have a problem with this kind of manipulation of the data in misleading ways.

Their conclusion is that exercise is protecting the Masai from the deadly saturated fats in their diet. A more parsimonious explanation is that saturated fat per se doesn't cause heart disease. It's also more consistent with other healthy cultures that ate high-fat diets like the Inuit, certain Australian aboriginal groups, and some American Indian groups. It's also consistent with the avalanche of recent trials of low-carbohydrate diets, in which people consistently see improvements in weight, blood pressure, and CVD markers, among other things. Not that I have much faith in blood lipid markers of CVD.

My conclusion, from this study and others, is that macronutrients don't determine how healthy a diet is. The specific foods that compose the diet do. The rural Masai are healthy on a high-fat diet, the rural Bantu are fairly healthy on a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet. Only the urban Bantu show a pattern really consistent with the "disease of civilization", despite a daily energy expenditure very similar to the rural Bantu. They're unhealthy because they eat too much processed food: processed vegetable oil, processed grain products, refined sugar.

Thanks to kevinzim for the CC photo

Exercise Didn't Keep Us From Getting Fat

One of the surprising things I noticed when I was poring over data from the NHANES survey (US CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) from 1975 to 2006 is that the number of inactive people has diminished in that same time period from 50% to 24%. This is shocking to most people. We have this romanticized idea that in the 1970s people were more active, as if everyone chopped wood and walked 15 miles to work in the morning. The reality is, there were office jobs, housewives and cars without the large numbers of runners and gym-goers we have today.

Granted, NHANES data are self-reported and should be taken with a grain of salt. However, Chris at Conditioning Research pointed me to a study looking at changes in energy expenditure from the 1980s to the present in North America and Europe. It doesn't suffer from the same biases because it's based on direct measurement rather than self-reporting. Here's the executive summary: we're expending slightly more energy than we used to, partly because we exercise more and partly because it takes more energy to move our heavier bodies around.

I'm certainly not blaming the obesity problem on an increase in physical activity, but I do think we can safely rule out inactivity as the reason we've gotten fatter. In my mind, this only leaves one major possible cause for the obesity epidemic: changes in diet. Don't get me wrong, I think exercise is good. It has numerous positive effects on physical and mental health. But it's not as powerful of a tool for fat loss and general health as diet.

Anecdotally, I do know several people who lose fat when they exercise regularly. I also know some who don't lose fat when they exercise. Exercise and a healthy diet converge on some of the same metabolic pathways, such as sensitivity to insulin. But diet changes are far more effective than exercise at correcting metabolic problems. The reason is simple: the problems a person corrects with a good diet are caused by a poor diet to begin with.