Train Your Metabolism to Survive and Thrive During the Holidays

-- Andrew Eaton, CSCS

Hard to believe, but the holidays are just around the corner. Every year, they are accompanied by the three Fs; family, food, and FAT! In the next few weeks, stories will pop up all over the internet about how much weight the average American will gain during the holidays, just like they do every year. This year, however, I’m going to give you a strategy to not only keep those holiday pounds off, but burn more calories after each meal!

The first thing that needs to be understood is that you are not ‘stuck’ with your metabolism; you can train it and change it, much like your muscles. The primary keys to training both are commitment and consistency to three things: challenging resistance training, supportive nutrition, and intelligent interval training.

If you’ve read my articles online, you know that I liken the metabolism to lighting a fire and keeping it burning. (If you haven’t read my articles online, what are you waiting for?) When you wake up in the morning, the fire is burning very low, and needs to be stoked with good fuel – food – in order to get it re-started and working for you. Poorly fueled fires give off limited energy and go out quickly, making the choice of food very important.

In a nutshell, the best fuels to keep your fire burning - and to keep your metabolism working - are high-fiber carbohydrates, found in whole-grain breads, cereals and pastas; and lean proteins, found in fish, eggs, and better cuts of chicken, beef, and pork. Some fats are acceptable, particularly those in fish oils and flax oils, beans, and nuts, particularly walnuts, almonds, and pecans.

In order to keep your metabolism working at peak efficiency, it needs to be stoked with good fuels at regular intervals – before it has a chance to go out. The optimum interval to be consuming combinations of lean proteins, high-fiber carbs, and healthy fats is every three hours. That means, if you have breakfast at 7AM, you should eat again around 10AM, 1PM, 4PM, and 7PM, with a possible smaller meal around 10PM. You may be thinking that it sounds like a lot of food, or wondering how much you should eat at any given meal. Quite simply, each meal should be filling enough to last you 3 hours.

This is pretty easy to fine tune if you jot down what you eat, what time you ate, and when your hunger started to return. No counting calories! If you have a meal, and get hungry again before three hours elapses, then the meal probably wasn’t enough. Likewise, if you have breakfast at 7AM and aren’t remotely hungry until 11AM, breakfast was likely too heavy.

The benefits to this supportive nutrition strategy are many. You’ll be better in tune with your body. You’ll be less hungry at lunch and dinner, making it easier to make better food choices, or to consume smaller portions. You’ll condition your body to be a calorie-burning machine, ready to speed up your metabolism whenever food is introduced. If you start this plan Monday, you should be reaping noticeable benefits by Friday!

Resistance training is extremely important if burning fat is your goal. Stored bodyfat is a fuel, and fuels are burned almost exclusively inside muscle cells. Hence, adding lean muscle to your frame via resistance training is a great way to increase your metabolic rate! There are some general guidelines to creating a time-efficient muscle-building training program.

First, choose weightloads that are challenging enough to permit only 9 to 12 repetitions. If you’re using weights that allow 15 to 20+ repetitions, you’re not challenging the muscles to increase their capacity for work. Research shows that maximum muscle increases happen in this training range.

Second, choose multi-joint exercises - motions that require multiple muscles to work together. Exercises that target isolated muscles, like biceps curls, leg extensions, etc, are great for those specific areas, but for the sake of total calorie burn, and increased efficiency of your workout, it is better to choose exercises that challenge more than one muscle at a time. Examples are push-ups, rows, squats, bench presses, pulldowns, and lunges. Use the same exercises for three to four weeks, then choose different exercises, and commit to working as hard as possible for another 3 to 4 weeks.

Third, pick only one exercise for each major muscle group and work as hard as you can for 3 to 4 sets. Instead of doing 3 sets of 3 different chest exercises, followed by 3 sets of different leg exercises, pick one multi-joint exercise for each of those muscle groups, and move as much weight/load as possible with good form for 3 to 4 sets of 9-12 repetitions. A little trick – time your sets! A set of 12 repetitions should take no more than 48 seconds. Try a one second lift, a one-second hold/squeeze, and a two-second lowering; you’ll be working smarter, more efficiently, and will reap better results!

Interval training is the final key. It has been documented that long, steady aerobic training is not an effective mechanism to lose bodyfat. The body adapts positively to challenge, so you may need to dial up the intensity of your aerobic training. Interval training is simply an alternation between different levels of intensity. Like the weight training, it takes some commitment to work harder than your body is accustomed to. The benefits, however, are increased caloric burn, increased fat burn, increased aerobic capacity, lower resting heart rates, and better heart-rate recovery. An added bonus – interval training reaps these benefits with exercise sessions that are shorter in duration than typical aerobic workouts.

A beginner interval training session on a treadmill might look like this:

3m walking at 3.5 - 4mph

30s running at 6mph

1m walking

45s running at 6mph

1m walking

1m running at 6mph

1m walking

30s running at 6.5mph

1m walking

45s running at 6.5mph

1m walking

1m running at 6.5mph

1m walking at 3.5

1m walking at 3.0

1m walking at 2.5

The whole session would take 15:30. You can dictate the speeds based upon your current level of fitness, as well as the length of the work (running) and rest (walking) intervals. If you wanted to train for 30 minutes, you could skip the last two walking intervals and repeat the entire training, adding the walk to the end. Similar programs can be designed for elliptical machines, bikes, etc. If you need assistance, let me know!

So there you have it: a complete plan of attack to keep holiday pounds at bay! No more excuses - start fueling your inner fire, and get stoked!

McDonald's is too cheap

We have now all seen the recent 'Obesity Epidemic' reports in the news, once again drawing attention to this issue. While it would be easy to continue to blame the fast-food world and their constant serving-size wars, the blame would be misplaced. The epidemic is an economic problem.

If you're old enough to remember 20 or 30 years ago, think back and try to imagine what a 'poor' person looked like when you were little. I remember the poor as skinny, undernourished waifs. Being fat was a sign of wealth and the ability to indulge that came with it. Today, those images have completely reversed! Overweight people are stigmatized as poor, slovenly souls who simply don't have the self-control to stop eating or the will power to exercise.

Now, think about our current economy. Foreclosures were up 58% in the first six months of 2007. The housing market remains in a stall. As interest rates rise, people can no longer afford their house payments, car payments, electric bills... and what about credit cards? The interest on credit cards goes to the maximum if a payment is late, making it nearly impossible to ever pay them off.

If you were in that situation, how would you to feed your family? A the grocery store, you can get a bottle of 100% juice for $3.99 and a lean steak for $6.00, or you can get four 2-liter bottles of Coke for less than 4 bucks, and four boxes of chicken nuggets for less than the steak. Sure, it's crappy, fat-, sugar, and preservative-filled food, but it's going to feed your family for two or three times as long. Let's not forget fast food; it's the ultimate bargain! 99-cent cheeseburgers? A 48-ounce Coke for under a dollar? Are you kidding? Sign me up! Who cares that it will probably lower the average human life expectancy by a small factor every time it's consumed? At least the kids can eat.

The problem is, cheap food is the bread and butter (and fries) of the fast-food industry. The only way that the FF industry could positively impact the obesity epidemic would be to triple their prices, thereby making it difficult for the lower-economic echelon folks to get any. Unfortunately, that will just result in either more children starving, or more crime when Mom has to pull a holdup at the drive-through.

Healthier foods are more expensive. It's a fact. I sort of understand, because it has become increasingly difficult to provide domestically produced food that is not devoid of nutritional value. However, when the stores with names like Fresh Foods, Green Fields, and Farm Town jack up the prices another 30 to 40%, they are only exacerbating the problem. They need to do their due diligence to make their healthy foods available to everyone.

Unfortunately, until the government decides that the people in the United States - all of them, not just the ones who pad campaign funds - are worth saving, the economic disarray we're in will continue to further the country's issue with obesity.

In my opinion.

Have Another Apple?

I've been having conversations with my clients lately about the idea of supportive nutrition. More accurately, I'm trying to break their belief that eating less is a great way to lose fat. I do this despite the fact that they are eating less and NOT losing fat, which is driving me a bit nuts. Many of the people I'm chatting with used to be less fat. When they were less fat, and liked the body they woke up to every day, they were all eating more. More than they currently eat, and some of them are more active now than in the past. So, I'm trying to explain the idea of eating supportive meals at regular intervals throughout the day, and we get to the topic of cravings. Many folks crave sweets, and, when the body is getting low on energy it is not surprising that the body craves carbohydrates, particularly simple ones, because they serve as a mechanism to get energy into the system quickly. Problem is, the simple carbohydrates - the sweets - get into the system SO quickly that they don't last long enough to provide energy for long, and the body begins to crave sweets again. (This has a bit to do with how insulin works to store the energy from the carbs, but that's a more in-depth discussion!) I suggested that fruits, particularly apples and pears, would do a better job. The body gets its craving for sweet met, plus gets vitamins, fiber, and water as added benefits. Besides, think of it this way: when you eat a cookie, you usually want another cookie. When was the last time you finished an apple and wanted another one five minutes later?

So, my advice, beyond the obvious and aforementioned regularly spaced, supportive meals every three hours, is this: if you're exercising regularly, and you don't look the way you want, you need to change your eating. You need to eat for the body you want - not the one you have right now. If you want more muscle, and, hence, a faster and more efficient metabolism, you need to eat to fuel the muscle you want. Of course, you need to be attempting to gain that muscle at the same time via resistance & strength training - but the body won't respond appropriately to that work unless the fuel is there for the workout, and the nutrition is there for the recovery and maintenance process.

Eat for how you want to look! And have an apple.

Training Challenges

Let me share something with you; lately I've been having difficulties completing my own workouts. I registered to run a half-marathon in June, but have stalled in my running because, frankly, it's hard, and I don't really like to run unless I'm already running. I mean, if I'm not 2 miles into a run, I really don't have any interest in running. Sort of problematic!

The other issue I'm facing now is that I am having difficulty with keeping my energy up in the gym. This really ticks me off, because exercise has been a cornerstone of my life since I was eleven years old. So it becomes a vicious cycle of going to the gym, throwing in a half-a**ed workout, and leaving felling unfulfilled and depressed, which saps my drive for the next workout.

There are days, though,that all the stars are aligned and I have a good session. Last Saturday's session included Chain flyes, Olympic deadlifts, chain pullups, heavy bag lunges, and some barbell push presses. I finished, felt great, and left the gym, then did nothing else all weekend. The rest of Saturday was great, emotionally, because I felt as if I was ready to get back on track, then I skipped my run Sunday, and, despite setting aside time today to train, I blew it off. Granted, I have time later today to do it, but emotionally, the drive just isn't there right now.

So, what do you do when you lose motivation? I'm open to suggestions!

What Ultimate Fighting Can Teach You About Setting Effective Goals

I was spending the evening with friends recently watching an episode of 'Ultimate Fighting.' At one point, someone mentioned that a fighter who had previously won the championship title had been beaten badly in his next fight. He'd won several fights in a row to get to the championship fight, won the title, then lost. Based on an interview we watched, it seemed that he had set his sights on the title, focused his energy on doing everything necessary to get there, but, once there, having achieved his goal, had little motivation for the title defense.

When a goal is being set, it has to be set with emotion and commitment. Emotion is important, because the goal needs to be anchored in something powerful. It's the difference in thinking, 'I want to lose 10 pounds before my reunion' and 'I want to lose 10 pounds before my reunion because I was teased about my weight when I was in school and being around those people will bring back those negative emotions of being ridiculed.' The key to finding the real emotion behind a decision is to keep asking 'why?' Eventually you'll come to a reason that has to do with avoiding some sort of physical or emotional pain.

A quick story - I had a client years ago who told me she wanted to lose weight. We worked for a few weeks, and, while she got stronger, she wasn't seeing the weight loss she wanted. She had however, just had her physical and had been pronounced in perfect health; blood pressure, heart rate, stress test and bloodwork were all excellent. I started asking some questions about her family and her health, and learned that her mother had always been on diets, with her weight always up and down. She then told me that 'all she'd ever wanted was to be healthy, without having to worry about constant fluctuations in her weight.' See where I'm going? She'd already achieved her true goal of being perfectly healthy! Changing her weight was actually something she did NOT want to do, even though she thought it was.

When you set a goal for yourself, I recommend three steps. First, ask yourself 'why?' until you get to an emotional, pain-avoiding reason for setting it. Second, write down the goal, and the date you'll achieve it by, and post it somewhere you'll see it daily. Third, tell people close to you about the goal you're working to achieve, so that you're accountable to others, as well as yourself.

Oh - in keeping with the topic, I have set a goal of running a half-marathon in June. It is something I have never done, and I'm starting the 12 week-training program 4 weeks late. But I'm telling you anyway! So ask me about it! Guilt me into running if you have to!

- A

Performance Nutrition for a Faster Metabolism and Better Fat Burning!

The Fire Within

Keys to creating a better metabolism.
-- Andrew Eaton, Personal Trainer, CSCS, RTS2

You’ve tried them all, right? All the popular diets – giving up this, only eating that, can’t eat after a certain time of day? Read this twice - because this is important - people do not fail the diets they try; diets fail the people who try them. Fad diets are filled with misinformation and quick-fix plans. You’ve been eating since you were born, and you’re going to eat ‘til the end, so forget the quick-fix; I’m going to give you the information that will help you take control.

Essentially, metabolism is about generating energy. A calorie is a measure of heat, and the metabolism is a measure of how quickly the body expends those calories over time. Building and maintaining an effective metabolism is very much like building and maintaining a fire. The quality of any fire is dependent on fuel; the better the fuel, the hotter and longer the fire will burn. In this case, the available fuels are carbohydrates and fats.

Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy for muscle and brain function, and are generally categorized into simple or complex. Examples of simple carbs include sweets and low-fiber, high-starch foods made with processed, or ‘enriched’, white flour, like white bread, most cold cereals, and white pastas. Complex carbohydrates include vegetables and whole-grain, high-fiber breads & cereals. Fruits fall somewhere in between, as they typically are high in fructose (fruit sugar) but also have some beneficial fiber.

Like carbohydrates, fats are also grouped in two general categories: saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fats are to be avoided, as they have demonstrated a link to many health risks including heart disease and high cholesterol. Saturated fats also have a higher propensity to be stored as bodyfat. The rule of thumb when distinguishing a saturated fat from an unsaturated one is that the saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Hence, foods like butter, cheese, and animal fats all qualify. Unsaturated fats include those in vegetables (e.g. avocados), olive oil, nuts, and fish; all are rich in nutrients and are more readily used by the body as fuel.

Protein is not to be forgotten, but it should be noted that protein is not truly a fuel; it is a ‘building block’ composed of amino acids. These amino acids are used by the body primarily to build, repair, and maintain muscle tissue. Primary sources of protein are meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. While not readily useable as a fuel, they do play an important role in the metabolic process, which will be explained shortly.

Each time you consume food, the body must expend calories to digest it. The more complex the food, the more energy is required. Your body will burn about 5 calories for each 100 grams of fat you consume. You will expend approximately 10 calories for every 100 grams of carbohydrate you eat. Proteins are chains of amino acids, which require up to 20-30 calories per 100 grams to process. Here is the important part: fat contains 9 calories per gram, while carbs and proteins only contain 4 calories per gram. 100 grams of fat, therefore, has 900 calories, while 100 grams of carbs or protein only have 400 calories! Let’s say you’re eating 2400 calories a day. That’s 400 calories per meal. You could eat 266 grams of fat, or 600 grams of carbs and/or protein. Which would you rather be able to eat each day?

Key number 1: eating complex carbohydrates and lean proteins with each meal provides up to a 30% boost in your metabolism, and they have less than half the calories of fatty foods! The next time you have a choice between fast food and supportive nutrition, keep in mind that it will take twice as long to burn off twice as many calories.

Back to the analogy; when building a fire for heat and warmth, we usually opt for large logs, which will provide a long, slow burn. In the nutritional sense, complex carbohydrates and lean proteins are the logs. They’re filling, take a while for the body to digest, and are, therefore, good sources of energy. As high-fiber foods are the logs, sweets and sugary foods are a piece of newspaper. It provides great heat, or energy, for a very short duration, but then flames out to almost nothing. (How many times have you had a sweet snack in the middle of the afternoon, felt great for 20 minutes, and then felt exhausted? You know what happens next – you reach for another snack!) Reading into the analogy, when you eat high-fiber foods, it takes far less food (and, therefore, calories) to get the metabolism cooking. If simple sugars are a staple of your diet, it takes repeated servings to keep energy levels up…requiring more and more calories.

Key number 2! Snacking on complex carbohydrates – a.k.a. high-fiber foods - is an easy way to eat fewer calories and feel full without depriving yourself of food.

An unattended fire tends to go out. In order to keep the fire burning, it must be stoked at regular intervals. The body’s digestive cycle runs about 4 hours, so it is important to get more fuel in the system before the fire goes out. It is recommended that meals be consumed approximately every three hours to keep the metabolism running at its optimum level. The added benefit of such a schedule is that, like resistance training conditions the muscles, frequent feedings condition the metabolism to burn food efficiently.

Key number 3: eating smaller, more frequent meals provides metabolic boosts throughout the day, and conditions the metabolism to burn calories efficiently.

A word about choosing your foods: stoke the fire based upon the three hours following the meal. If you’re just starting your day, it is important to build a hot fire which will provide energy through the morning. Another way to say that is – you need to eat breakfast! Did you know that people who do not eat breakfast are 400% more likely to have issues with obesity? Complex carbohydrates provide a long-lasting, slow burning source of energy, and are ideal for breakfast, along with a serving of lean protein. In addition, feeding your body quality protein early in the day lets the body burn fat up to 7 times more efficiently! If you’re eating dinner, and you’re going to bed soon, it is not necessary to build a roaring fire. Protein and vegetables provide a nice combination of metabolic boost and few residual starchy calories.

Key number 4: eat breakfast, and plan meals to fuel you through the next three hours.

**A word about nutritional supplements. According to Annette Dickinson, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, “The regular use of multivitamins and a few other nutritional supplements can measurably improve the nutritional status and lifelong health of the American public.”

Key number 5: certain nutritional supplements can help you optimize your energy, physical performance, and overall health. To learn more about which nutritional supplements may help you look, feel, and perform better, ask your pharmacist or personal trainer, or visit my website at www.advocarenutrition.net.

In summary, you are not a slave to your metabolic rate; you have the ability to improve your metabolism. Your body can burn more calories, more efficiently, while providing enough energy to get you through anything you undertake. Better yet, by taking care of your metabolism, you will maximize both your potential and your results in the gym and in life, making your commitment and hard work worthwhile.

You have enough information to take control of your metabolism…stoke that fire and get burning!

Remember: People do not fail the diets they try. Diets fail the people who try them.