Incidentally, for anyone interested in scientific literature but not willing to delve into the original research just yet, Science Daily is an excellent way to start reading material with for more credibility than the junk you find on websites like Shine, Prevention or the homepage of MSN.com.

In this particular study, researchers took 115 women and assigned them to one of three groups:

1. a calorie-restricted, low-carbohydrate group (2 days a week)
2. an ad-lib low carbohydrate diet (subjects could eat as much protein/healthy fat as they pleased 2x/week)
3. a standard, calorie-restricted, Mediterranean diet (7 days a week)

I always enjoy studies that include a group that involves some sort of “ad-lib” group, because I find it better represents eating conditions for free-living humans than do diet conditions with all kinds of artificial calorie restraints.

At the conclusion of the four month trial, researchers found that the two carbohydrate restricted conditions led to greater weight loss and fat loss (both groups lost an average of ~9 lbs vs. 5 lbs in the Mediterranean condition), as well as yielding superior benefits in decreasing the prevalence of insulin resistance (22% reduction in the low carb calorie-restricted, 14% reduction for the ad lib group and 4% reduction in the Mediterranean group).

Now to be fair, this is just the summary report from a conference presentation so I can’t exactly go through the methodology to see what kind of diets the two low-carb groups were following the other 5 days of the week. I also don’t know what their definition of “low carbohydrate” was (20 g/day, 50 g/day, <100 g/day, etc).

Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the participants in those two intermittent low carbohydrate groups actually ate fairly low carb for more than just those two days a week. If this were the case, then it would be impossible to say whether the positive outcomes were solely from the 2 days a week of deliberate low carbohydrate dieting, or the fact they reduced their carbohydrate consumption closer to 7 days a week…

But in any case, the important thing to note here is once again, we see evidence of superior body composition results as well as health outcomes when you consciously reduce (*note I did not say eliminate) the amount of carbohydrate you consume in your diet.

The Food Period of Champions

Obviously there are exceptions to this (I’ve written extensively on the subject previously), but the general theme emerges: adopting a lower-carbohydrate lifestyle, at least several days a week, can pay huge dividends in your weight loss and health improvement efforts.

Incorporating a few deliberate low-carbohydrate days into your regular routine can also be a fantastic way to avoid gaining a whack load of weight through the Holiday season, which is fast approaching. In fact, we can take the whole periodic, deliberate low intake philosophy one step further for really explosive results… but that’s a blog article for next week!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. Carbohydrate Restriction: The Numbers Don’t Lie
2. Ladies, Cardio Sucks For Weight Loss
3. Carbs for Breakfast? Big Mistake

Actually check that. His 6-month weight gain period has ended and he’s packed on more than 70 lbs!

You can check out his progress (or regress I suppose) here: fit2fat2fit.com.

Now when I first heard about this, I couldn’t really believe that anyone would voluntary subject themselves to a diet replete with simple sugars and processed foods with the express purpose of packing on an excess 70 lbs of pure lard (193 –> 265 lbs)!

Of course, after flipping through his website for a bit, it becomes clear that he’s using this transformation to strengthen his coaching business, but more power to him if he pulls it off.

I can quite confidently say that I don’t have the balls to deliberately gain that much weight, even though I’m certain I can design programs to take the weight back off again.

It will be an interesting experiment for sure, even though there’s one major limitation of his transformation: he’s immediately launching his weight loss phase now that his 6-month weight gain is done.

Without spending several months being weight stable (allowing his metabolism and hormones to ‘re-set’ his norm at 260+ lbs), he’ll face a much easier time taking the weight off than would someone who’s been the same weight for years. That being said, losing 70 lbs is tough no matter what.

If you flip through Drew’s blog , it’s apparent he’s struggling with a number of aspects of steadily growing fatter. Not only has his health deteriorated significantly, but his home-life and his self-image have both suffered.

Although many fitness professionals were formerly overweight, terminally skinny or may have overcome an eating disorder, it’s rare that once we’ve turned our lives around that we’d be willing to give it all up and chronicle our descent publicly.

I for one will be following his journey as he works towards rebuilding his body. Not so much to see whether he can do it (I firmly believe he’ll drop the weight with little difficulty given his former love of healthy eating and working out), but rather because I’m interested in seeing how effectively he is able to inspire others to lose along with him.

Good luck to you Drew, may your project have greater positive repurcussions than you could have imagined!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. 2010 Exercise Nutrition Symposium Review
2. Dumb things smart people do
3. Your Parents Made You Fat, Do Something About It

The most exciting aspect of LIVE360° for me is how everything we are doing is with one goal in mind: providing a better experience for every member. And much of this improved client experience has to do with some of the systems we’ve implemented from a results and coaching perspective.

I suppose you could say our unofficial motto is: “your success is our business“.

In fact, one of my inaugural projects at LIVE360° has been to help the station manager of a local radio station, Brad Gibb from FM96, get himself into shape.

Brad works a very stressful job and as such, his health (and body) have gone into the tank over the past 3 years. But with the support (aka daily harassment) of the hosts of FM96′s morning show, Brad has decided to take action and spend 10-weeks overhauling his life.

As part of Brad’s 10-week transformation, he’s been training down at LIVE360° three times a week and I’ve been helping him out with making some diet changes. Documenting his progress from week to week is a film crew, and you can watch Brad and I from the video from last week:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although we are only 4 weeks into his transformation, Brad is totally rocking it! He’s down almost 15 lbs and has dropped nearly 3″ off his mid-section!

But more importantly that the weight-loss, Brad is finding himself starting to love exercise and healthy eating once again, factors which encourage me about his long-term prospects more than anything else.

As someone who has spent the better part of the past 5 years coaching clients through a variety of weight loss efforts, I know the struggles many clients face trying to get themselves back into shape. Making a lifestyle change isn’t easy and people often feel as though they are “going it” alone.

Making matters worse, there are so many weight-loss programs and gadgets on the market touting all kinds of ridiculous claims, that it’s no wonder most people are frustrated and confused about how to take back control over their lives.

Although many weight-loss programs exist, the one thing common to all successful programs is that they provide people with both the tools and the support necessary to succeed.. and that is why I’m so excited about LIVE360°. 

I’m finally working at a place where the training (programming + support staff) is on par with the nutrition coaching that I deliver. Although I’ve been doing group weight-loss coaching for the past few years, I’ve never been able to pair my nutrition coaching with an in-person workout experience… until now!

In fact, we are launch a brand-spanking new 8-week transformation challenge this week (Info session: Thursday, October 13th @ 7:30 PM, challenge begins Monday, October 17th) called:

 360º of Transformation

It’s really a one-of-its-kind type of program in that you get:

• 2 personal training sessions a week
• unlimited conditioning classes
• small group nutrition seminars
• daily coaching feedback and progress monitoring
• pre- and post- body composition assessments
• the chance to win 3-months of free personal training

And here’s the kicker, the program comes with a guarantee that you’ll succeed!

Now we realize that many people throw out the term “guarantee” pretty loosely but we mean it. In fact, we mean it so much that if you do our program and still do see the kind of meaningful results you’d expect, we’ll refund you your entire purchase price!

Think about it, it truly is a no-lose situation: either you crush your goals or you get 8 weeks of training and nutrition coaching on our dime!

Seriously though: you’ll crush your goals. We don’t do failure

Oh, I haven’t even mentioned the best part of this program (well, obviously the best part of the program is that you get coached by yours truly): you get all the training and coaching for only $299/month.

So if you are someone who has been looking to kick-start your weight loss efforts and are looking for an entire team dedicated to helping you along the way, your journey begins this Thursday, October 13th.

Click Now to Join: 360º of Transformation

It’s a decision that’ll impact the rest of your life!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. Scale Subterfuge: Does Body Weight Matter?
2. Your Parents Made You Fat, Do Something About It
3. Have You Hugged A Farmer Today?

After the talk was done and I was fielding questions, one comment was voiced that I repeatedly mentioned that consuming more vegetables was key for weight loss, however, I didn’t mention anything about fruit.

Frankly, I’m glad this question was raised because I’ve had a number people ask me recently about my stance on fruit. I think the sudden interest in fruit consumption has a lot to do with Weight Watchers having recently changed their nutrition guidance to counsel people that fruit is a “free food” and that daily consumption is unlimited.

To this I have to say: sorry Weight Watchers, but once again your nutrition advice is off the mark.

Biological scientists realize fruit and vegetables aren’t the same thing…

Now before I go to far, let me assert the following: fruit (in the correct servings) is a wondrously healthy addition to most meal plans.

Personally, I think that the micronutrient profile of fruit makes it the smartest way to meet the bulk of daily sugar intake and I routinely encourage clients to have some fruit in and around their workouts.

NB. I deliberately did not use the term “daily sugar requirement”. Because as I have already pointed out, physiologically speaking, the daily sugar need for a human is zero grams per day.

However, for people whose primary goal is weight loss (and not just maintenance of good health), fruit intake MUST BE controlled. Suggesting otherwise is a straight up slap in the face of science.

Let’s look at some numbers to see this in greater detail. Considering our latest food guidance tools suggest that we need “5 servings of fruit and vegetables” a day, let’s see what happens if someone consume all those servings as either fruit or vegetables.

I tried to use very “standard North American” choices here to show just how massive a difference there is between 5 servings of vegetables (~2 1/2 cups chopped) vs. 5 servings of fruit (5 medium servings). Incidentally, I included vitamin C in this analysis because I frequently here people telling me that they need to eat fruit to get vitamin C…

According to this very simple analysis, we can see that on average, a serving of fruit provides:

• 4x a many calories as a serving of vegetable
• 5x the carbohydrate
• 7x the sugar
• 3x the fibre
• comparable amounts of vitamin C, depending on the food source

Now I don’t know about you, but telling people they can consume as much fruit as they like a good bet to having them overconsume calories and sugars in long run.

Speaking from personal experience, the most common problem my weight loss clients have is that they are already eating far too many sugars of any type. And although I think the sugar in fruit is the healthiest type of sugar to consume… it’s still sugar and you can’t go “carte blanche” and expect to have an easy time losing weight.

Clearly not a GTO sponsored weight loss class…

To be fair, if your diet is currently nothing but Krispy Kreme donuts, then opting for 8-10 servings of fruit in place of those 8-10 donuts will do wonders for health AND weight loss. In fact, fruit is a great tool for helping people wean themselves off all the added sugars in the typical North American diet.

However, assuming you are reasonably healthy already and are looking to drop those last 10 lbs and look ultra fit, then practicing proper fruit control is likely going to be a necessary diet modification.

To sum my position on fruit it’d be as follows: is fruit healthy? Yes. Can you eat all the fruit you want and look the way you want to? Probably not.

A far better approach is to limit the majority of your fruit consumption to in and around workouts, then load up your plate with vegetables the rest of the day. Do this and don’t be surprised if the weight starts to fall off by “magic”.

Clearly it’s not magic, it’s just basic physiology. Crazy how science works.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. Twinkies: Secret to Weight Loss Success?
2. Healthy Ideas for the Lazy: Vegetables in a Bag
3. Ladies, Cardio Sucks For Weight Loss

“Assume everything we know is wrong“

Ever since adopting this outlook, my understanding of nutrition and metabolism has grown by leaps and bounds.

Now before you get too excited, just because I approach every new (or existing) piece of knowledge in the exercise science domain as incorrect, that doesn’t mean I reject it. Quite the opposite actually. Lots of what we think we know does appear to be correct… but an alarming amount of what we pass around as “fact” doesn’t hold up at all to scientific scrutiny.

Case in point: breakfast.

One of the most significant turning points in my career came after I read an article entitled “Logic Does Not Apply Part II: Breakfast” by John Kiefer over on the Elite FTS website.

The crux of this piece was how when it comes to improving body composition, one of the best strategies seems to be skipping breakfast.

I think you probably need to read that last line again… I know I went over it 3 or 4 times myself when I first read it.

Obviously my initial reaction was one of “this guy is a total knob. Everyone knows that breakfast (outside of post-workout nutrition) is the most important meal of the day. In fact, if you don’t eat within 30 minutes of waking up cortisol levels will skyrocket and muscle tissue get broken down for fuel…” yada, yada, yada.

In fact, I was just about to close his “ridiculous” piece when I happened to notice that he’d referenced over 80 peer reviewed papers in putting together his argument.

Now I appreciate that not everyone loves properly referenced science, but when someone goes to those lengths to justify a blog post, I just had to dig deeper. And as I started to go through the articles he’d quoted, I was astounded with what I found.

Without question, there seems to be an utter lack of convincing data that shows breakfast eaters improve their body composition moreso than do people who skip breakfast (assuming they both eat the same diets). In fact, while breakfast eaters do appear to lose more weight than their non-breakfast eating companions, it turns out that more of this extra weight loss comes in the form of muscle mass.

Clearly, not something we want to have happen at all!

Every since that day, I’ve totally readjusted my thinking when it comes to the need for breakfast consumption for my clients. Which isn’t to say I forbid it… but I just am quick to point out grabbing a bite to eat immediately upon wakening isn’t necessarily someone’s best route to success for improving body composition.

In fact, yet another study was just published last month which supports the “avoid breakfast” idea. In the most recent edition of the journal Obesity, a group out of Isreal headed by Siegal Sofer showed that “Greater fat loss and hormonal changes after 6 months diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner“.

In this particular study, two groups of obese police officers (average body fat ~38%) were followed for 6-months. Both groups followed the same low-calorie diet providing 1300-1500 kcal; 20% protein, 30-35% fat and 45-50% carbohydrate.

The only difference between groups was that one group of cops got the majority of their daily carbohydrates with dinner, while the other group consumed their carbohydrates throughout the day.

A quick look at the breakfasts for these two group reveals significant differences:

Dinner carb group: coffee + 1/5 cup milk and 7 walnut halves
Breakfast carb group: coffee + 1/5 cup milk + 2 slices bread + cheese

Then each subsequent meal for the breakfast carb group contained either a fruit or a starch, whereas the dinner carb group got a big load of carbs (i.e. 4 slices bread or 2 cups rice) with dinner.

Now based on conventional thinking, we would assume that “back end” loading your day’s carbohydrates to be a bad idea (particularly since there wasn’t any exercise component to this study)… only that’s the opposite of what the found.

The “carbs for dinner” group actually:

• lost more weight (11.6 kg vs 9.06 kg)
• lowered insulin levels to a greater extent (-32% vs +22%)
• increased HDL-C more (40.8% vs 26%)
• improved TNF-a levels (-9.2% vs +16.2%)
• increased adiponectin (43.5% vs 13.9%)

and showed strong trends towards improving:

• greater body fat losses (6.98% vs 5.13%)
• and superior protection of leptin levels (-20.6% vs -26.2%)

To top it all off, the “carbs at night” group showed vastly superior hunger control by the end of the study!

H SSc = Hunger Satiety Score. Higher is better.

Seeing awesome results like these strikes a chord with me, the hunger Nazi. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times – control someone’s hunger and you control their long-term success on a calorie restricted diet!

Now I’m more than happy to discuss/debate the idea of breakfast avoidance further in the comments section below, but keep in mind that this strategy works best if you are:

• looking to lose body fat
• no longer growing (i.e. not great for kids)
• currently over-fat and have clear evidence of insulin resistance
• don’t train intensely early in the morning

If you train for triathlons from 5-7 AM each morning, are a 14 year old boy hitting puberty or have been rail thin your entire life… then by all means, make sure you hammer down a large serving of carbs shortly after waking up. For everyone else, beginning the day with a bowl of cereal or a bagel will get the day started off on the wrong foot.

But that’s just my opinion… one that just happens to be backed by a lot of hard science

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. Low Carbohydrate Diets: Science Continues to Show Support
2. Important Training Lesson: Go Hard then Go Home
3. Kid Friendly Vegetable Recipes