Saturated Fats

I recently came across an excellent article discussing fat consumption. It contains an in depth explanation as to why saturated fat (and a host of other fats) and cholesterol are actually good for you, as well as why we have ended up with such misguided dietary guidelines.

I particularly enjoyed the following image:

On the top right graph, we see the 6 countries selected for Ancel Keys study on fat intake and coronary heart disease, a study that is foundational for the widely accepted view that fat is bad for you and part of the basis for most of the Western world's dietary recommendations. There seems to be a fairly strong positive relationship. That is, as fat intake increases, so too does CHD risk. However, the other two graphs show data from other countries in the study. The left one showing about the opposite relationship to the one Keys selected, and the bottom right showing an even stronger negative relationship than the countries used in his study! For those selected countries, more fat in the diet was correlated to dramatically fewer instances of CHD deaths. Interesting.

The article goes on to discuss the nutritional superiority of pastured eggs and grass-fed animal meat. While most fat, even saturated fat, isn't the enemy, we still want to get our fats from good quality sources. There are much better omega-3 to omega-6 ratios in grass-fed animal products, and this provides a host of health benefits itself.

In conclusion: don't demonize saturated fats or foods that are higher in cholesterol. Fat and cholesterol intake are not linked to increased CHD in most of the normal population. At the same time, try to get fats from quality sources such as pastured eggs and grass-fed beef or wild game. Coconut oil is another excellent source of saturated fats that can improve your HDL ("good") cholesterol levels. For other fats, olive oil, fish, and avocados are fantastic sources.

Oh, and if you were wondering the credentials of the author: "Donald Miller is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle."

- Jonathan

Paleo and health

My last post demonstrated how a Paleolithic type diet is beneficial for fat loss, but Paleo is good for so much more than making you look good. Internal measures of health are just as, if not more, important than external measures.

Generally we will find that in overweight individuals, reduction in weight will improve cardiovascular risk factors or diabetes risk factors. A diet consisting of any kind of foods can, theoretically, result in weight loss, but the question of whether or not one might be superior to another by improving these factors independently of weight change, still stands. If a particular way of eating improves health above and beyond the improvements seen with weight loss, this diet might be preferable for individuals who have these kinds of problems.

One study compared the effects of a Paleo diet to a "Consensus (Mediterranean-like) diet" on factors such as plasma glucose/insulin, weight, and waist circumference. They found that a Paleo diet improved glucose tolerance dramatically more than the Consensus diet and that this independent of changes in waist circumference. Impaired glucose tolerance is often a pre-cursor to type 2 diabetes and is a risk factor for mortality in its own right. Beyond that, the Paleo diet did decrease weight and waist circumference further than the Consensus diet. Double the bang for your buck!

Another even more impressive study demonstrated that "[e]ven short-term consumption of a paleolithic type diet improves BP and glucose tolerance, decreases insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profiles without weight loss in healthy sedentary humans." This was from only 10 days of Paleo eating. Imagine lengthening this period and combining it with exercise. And remember, decreased insulin secretion = more growth hormone and more utilization of fat stores.

More diabetes bashing abound in a further study that also demonstrated the efficacy of Paleo nutrition.

And finally, though not precisely a Paleo diet, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of decreased carbohydrate consumption for controlling type 2 diabetes. Participants initially started at 20g/day of carbohydrates (much lower than I'd recommend someone do for an extended period of time!) but did gradually increase carbohydrate intake later on in the study. While Paleo is not THAT low carb, it certainly is much lower than the typical North American diet and gets its carbohydrates from superior sources that are going to have less of an impact on blood sugar. This study concludes that a "LCKD improved glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes such that diabetes medications were discontinued or reduced in most participants. Because the LCKD can be very effective at lowering blood glucose, patients on diabetes medication who use this diet should be under close medical supervision or capable of adjusting their medication."

This last study brings up an important point. Whenever you're embarking on a new kind of diet or treatment, you should consult your doctor (who is hopefully a bit open-minded on the subject. Providing research might help) if you have a fairly serious medical condition that will be influenced by it. As well, it never hurts to actually measure the markers of health. If you're not convinced of certain claims, test them out! Get blood work done now and then after going Paleo for 30 days and see the difference for yourself.

This about wraps up the research posts I will be making in regards to Paleo. Hopefully some of the studies have helped convince the skeptics reading them that there may be some merit to this kind of eating. From here on in, posts related to Paleo will be more prescriptive or applicable to actually following it. As well, expect a post looking at how even someone who isn't convinced or interested in switching to a completely Paleo diet can take principles from it and improve their health and performance anyway.

Fast forward: Paleo improves cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors very effectively in studies done on the topic, regardless of whether or not weight loss occurs during the course of the intervention. Even 10 days of Paleo demonstrated significant improvements in these factors. If you do have a condition such as diabetes, consult your doctor before making any radical changes to your diet, especially if you're on medication. Less research posts, more putting into practice posts in the future.

- Jonathan

Paleo and fat loss

Now that a rough groundwork of what exactly Paleo is has been laid down, we're going to go ahead and examine some of the benefits of a Paleo-based diet in more detail.

Perhaps the most concerning and relevant point for the greatest number of people is how Paleo stacks up in terms of fat loss. If you think about it for a second, the food you'd be eating on a Paleolithic diet consists primarily of meat, vegetables, some nuts, and some fruit. You'll notice that means you'll be consuming quite a bit of protein, fairly low carbohydrates, and a lot of fat.

"But doesn't fat make you, well... fat? And won't eating a lot of fat raise my blood pressure, cholesterol, and generally make my heart explode?"

NO, and I intend to beat this point to death, revive it, and kill it again just for good measure.

This study, which is even more low carb and high fat than you'd typically experience with a Paleo diet concludes that "compared with a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate diet program had better participant retention and greater weight loss. During active weight loss, serum triglyceride levels decreased more and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level increased more with the low-carbohydrate diet than with the low-fat diet."

Another study on weight loss showed "weight loss, fat loss, and percent weight loss as fat appeared to be inversely related to the level of carbohydrate in the isocaloric, isoprotein diets. No adequate explanation can be given for weight loss differences." Less carbs, more fat, more weight loss in this study.

In virtually every study I've seen, weight loss is greater and a higher percentage of weight loss comes from fat mass in diets that are lower in carbohydrates compared to lower in fat. There are many reasons behind this and I'll be grossly oversimplifying a few of them for brevity and clarity.

Insulin
Insulin is a hormone that plays a major role in nutrient storage. When your blood glucose (sugar) levels rise, which happens most dramatically with ingestion of carbohydrates, insulin is secreted and tells your body to store nutrients. Insulin acts not only on glucose, but also fats and protein. As such, spikes in insulin result in a storage of all of these different macronutrients and adding more to our fat stores is not what we're shooting for.

Glucagon
The counter-hormone to insulin which essentially prompts the release of glucose from the liver and free fatty acids from fat stores. Fat stores being utilized = good. One factor in the release of glucagon is decreased blood glucose, as high blood glucose and therefore higher levels of insulin inhibit it. We avoid spiking insulin by consuming carbohydrates primarily from vegetables, fruits with lower sugar content (berries, melons), and occasionally things like yams or sweet potatoes.

More satiation.
Intake of protein and fats generally leave individuals feeling fuller for longer, partly because blood glucose remains more stable and a whack of other hormonal factors (there's more going on when you eat than you think!). From here it's pretty simple: if you're more full for longer, you're probably going to eat less food. Less food means fewer calories, and provided you're eating enough calories for your activity level and metabolism, this is generally a good thing. However, under-eating is BAD and can sabotage weight loss just as much as over-eating can.

Fewer calorie-dense, low-nutrition foods.
Grains simply do not pack the same nutritional punch as other food groups and don't offer anything above and beyond what can be acquired from other edibles such as vegetables, meats, fruits, and nuts. On top of this, grains tend to have a high amount of calories per volume, which is primarily carbohydrates. A piece of bread is roughly 110-120 calories, comparable to 3 cups of broccoli at a caloric level. I don't know if you've ever tried to eat 3 cups of broccoli, but I promise you will be much more full than if you just had that slice of bread. On top of that, bread will produce a much greater spike in blood glucose and therefore insulin than the broccoli would.

Let's take a look at a typical Paleo dinner:
- Salmon fillet with dill and lemon juice
- Steamed broccoli, a lot
- Blueberries, or perhaps a spinach salad with peppers, red onions, raspberries and a handful of walnuts, balsamic vinaigrette on top.

Even if we have a large and fatty cut of salmon we're looking at 350 calories for the typical person, plus another hundred or so between fruit and walnuts. Calories from fibrous vegetables and fruits (assuming they're low on sugar) are essentially negligible. A ~450 calorie meal that's packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, omega-3 fatty acids (double whammy between the salmon and walnuts. On top of this we're going to see almost no insulin spike and it will be incredibly filling. Replacing any of the ingredients with bread or rice would greatly increase the calories, spike insulin more than we want, and decrease nutrients, let alone comparing this lovely salmon meal to a a different dinner such as a bowl of pasta.

The take home message here isn't that carbohydrates are bad, but that spiking insulin is going to be very detrimental to fat loss, and as such we should be considering the kinds of carbohydrates we're putting in our mouths to ensure that they are nutritious and aren't going to kick us off the fat loss bandwagon. Quality of food is important, and a calorie isn't a calorie isn't a calorie.

The short(ish) of it: the nature of Paleolithic eating generally means you will be consuming more fats and fewer carbohydrates than you currently do. Fat is good for you, especially from high quality sources like salmon, grass-fed beef, nuts, olive oil, and avocados. The literature and biochemistry points out how lower carbohydrate diets are more effective for fat loss and also tend to improve cardiovascular disease measures more than low-fat diets. Insulin is released in response to rises in blood glucose levels (most dramatically increased by the consumption of sugars and carbohydrates from grains) and stores energy. Glucagon is its "opposite" and releases energy (like fatty acids from fat stores), but is inhibited by higher levels of glucose. Protein and fat keep you fuller, longer, so you aren't as hungry even when calorie levels go below maintenance. Carbohydrates are good, but we want to get them from vegetable sources, low sugar fruit (berries, melons), and the occasional yam/sweet potato/similar food.

Post questions to comments. The next Paleo blog will focus on markers of health for things such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and how a Paleo-based diet may be beneficial to these.

- Jonathan

Ido Portal mobility drills

This is Ido Portal; when it comes to mobility, balance, and flow, he certainly knows a thing or two:



Ido has a couple mobilization routines that I've found to be very helpful in my training. They're useful for both improving mobility and stability about the joints and decreasing joint pain. Let's take a look.


Ido's Squat Clinic, great for improving the depth of your squat and lower body function. In particular I've found the second and third exercises, the rotations, to be useful for eliminating knee pain due to tight hip rotators. I always do them before any workout that involves squats (and everyone should be doing squats of some kind!).




Scapular Mobilization, increasing function about the shoulder blades. In particular I do shoulder dislocations (don't let them name scare you away) with a band and the whippet on a fairly regular basis. Good for part of your warm-up on upper body days or if you're having a bit of shoulder pain.




And finally, Shoulder Mobilization. Again, something I do on most upper body days to prepare my shoulder joints for the stresses of the training session.




Some kind of mobility work should always be a part of your warm-up prior to doing any form of resistance training. This helps to warm up and lubricate the joints, as well as increasing their range of motion and stability through that range of motion.

Quick disclaimer: if you're doing mobility work to deal with pain in a joint, be careful of course. Move through motions gently with light or no resistance and if something really hurts, don't do it. Movement is great for healing injuries, but you want to be moving in the right ways.

In the end: mobility training is one of the most vital aspects of training, especially if you want a long training career and good movement later in life. Specific mobility for the joints you're planning to work in a training session is a wonderful addition to the warm-up and will help keep you pain and injury free on top of increasing range of motion. Just do it.

- Jonathan

Paleo Diet 101

So what exactly is the Paleo diet and why might it be beneficial to you?

The Paleo diet is based around the principle that the human genome, having evolved around a hunter-gatherer framework, has not had the time to adapt to modern food consumption. As such, we see the rise of obesity and many diseases of civilization such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and others. There is strong evidence that many of these problems are related to poor dietary quality, food choices, and of course lack of exercise.

The Paleo diet revolves around the consumption of quality meat sources such as wild game, grass-fed meat, free range fowl, and wild caught fish; seasonal fruits and vegetables; and healthy fats from food such as avocados, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and coconut oil.

Grains, dairy, legumes, sugar (duh), vegetable oils (canola and so on), and processed foods in general are a no go, for reasons that will be expanded upon in future posts.

"But wait!" you cry, "I love my bread, pasta, and cheese! Candy is fantastic and I still think margarine is better for you than butter! Why should I bother to make this change when I'll be missing out on all my goodies?"

Well, switching over to Paleo will likely have a long list of dramatic benefits to you, including but not limited to:
- looking better naked (fat loss and preserving lean muscle mass, double bonus!)
- more energy
- feeling great
- helping many medical conditions (diabetes being a big one)
- improving cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.
- helping to clear up acne (grains and dairy are often acne triggers for people)
- forcing you to learn some modicum of cooking
- and much, much more!

Don't believe me? I'll be providing reasoning and evidence in the near future.

On to my experience with Paleo so far. I'm probably coming up on a month now, or I might have just passed it. In general I feel excellent and many workouts have been fantastic. When I get to the gym I tear things up, especially as I really start to get into the workout. Bodyweight has been pretty stable and strength is increasing. I'm still consuming dairy, but this is purely a caloric thing. My goal is still to add lean mass and I'm finding it DIFFICULT to consume enough food otherwise (because I'm full!). I've leaned out a bit in spite of the fact that I'm putting in a pretty hard effort to gain weight, which I think is testament to the effectiveness of this kind of eating. I'm consuming a ton of yams, fruit, high calorie Paleo-friendly shakes, drinking olive oil (yuck), loads of milk, and I've still lost body fat. I have no doubt as to the efficacy of the Paleo diet for fat loss if followed in a manner consistent with that goal. If I dropped the dairy and replaced some of the fruit with even more vegetables I would probably feel even better than I currently do.

This is definitely something worth trying: a logical and scientifically backed way of eating that will improve your health and fitness dramatically. No calorie counting, no worrying excessively about portions, no being hungry while trying to lose weight. Give it 30 days, what've you got to lose? What might you gain from it?

Robb Wolf has a lot of fantastic resources over at his website. In particular are the Quick Start Guide and Shopping List to get the basics taken care of. If you're really serious about improving your health, losing fat, and feeling awesome, just bite the bullet and grab his book. It's ripe with all the "what?" and "how?" and "why?" answers you could ever want and even has some excellent recipes in the back.

Ba da bing: eat like your ancestors. Good quality meat sources, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats are a very big "yay" here. Say "nay" to grains, legumes, dairy, processed food, and vegetable oils. Feel awesome, drop body fat, perform better.

As always, feel free to comment with questions, comments, or concerns. If you have experience with a Paleo diet, feel free to post that as well!

- Jonathan

Mobility WOD

I've been neglecting the blog for a little bit in the chaos of life, but expect more frequent updates, even if they're just little ones like this.

Today you're going to check out Mobility WOD (workout of the day):
http://www.mobilitywod.com/

Mobility WOD is operated by Kelley Starrett, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and all around hyper-qualified individual when it comes to performance and getting you to move properly (like a supple leopard).

The WODs aren't always especially fun, and sometimes they are downright uncomfortable, but it's a small price to pay to be able to move properly and efficiently. Tightness and movement limitations result in faulty movement patterns and injury over time. Tightness in the lower body, for example, often manifests itself through pain in the ankles, knees, hip, or spine and that stress can wear down the joints and generally make your day-to-day life less than ideal. Mobility work is just as important as any other aspect of training, often even more so. If you can't move properly, you can't train properly, and if you can't train properly, what the heck are you doing?

These aren't the kinds of mobility drills you'd see at a Kelowna Kettlebell class, but they're incredibly effective and you'll feel much better after doing them. Scroll down to the bottom of his site, jump all the way back to the beginning of the WODs and get crackin' today.

I've been delving into the Paleo diet lately and there will be some posts on my experiences to come in the next while.

- Jonathan

Metabolic Conditioning

In the last few posts I've talked about training at a high intensity from the perspective of more traditional cardiovascular exercise such as running, rowing, etc. While this is effective, I would still pit a decent resistance training program (and resistance training just broadly refers to exercises against resistances such as your own bodyweight, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, and so on) against even several days of HIIT per week in terms of what would be most effective for developing a desirable body composition.

When we think of resistance training we generally think of individuals trying to add muscular weight to their frame. While this is very beneficial for most people, it is not the sole purpose of resistance training nor the sole effect we can achieve through performing it. Resistance exercises done with a good amount of effort are also very good for becoming or staying lean.

For example:
"The major finding in this study was that after RE total EE remained significantly elevated above resting levels for at least 1 h and that fuel utilization postexercise favored lipid oxidation. During the last 30 min of recovery, which corresponded to the time period when [BL] returned to baseline (minute 90 –120 postexercise), fat oxidation was significantly increased after RE as compared with the control condition."

While the total amount of calories burnt post exercise in that particular study weren't incredibly impressive, that's because the study itself was performed at a very moderate intensity with relatively undemanding exercises and loads. What it does demonstrate is that after resistance training, there can be a preference for fat as a fuel.

Besides the kettlebell study in my first post, I've had a rather difficult time finding studies on higher intensity resistance training programs or programs that integrate resistance training and conditioning work. One of the better studies I've found, that actually had a fairly well designed resistance training program with a good amount of intensity and a good exercise selection noted an increase in oxygen consumption (remember EPOC from the last post) up to 38 hours post-exercise!

While it may not be a perfect relationship, if we combine the increase in metabolism with the propensity towards using fat as a fuel following resistance exercise we can begin to see why a combination of resistance training and high intensity conditioning that further increases EPOC will do great things for body composition, especially in regards to burning fat. When resistance training is done in such a fashion so as to be high intensity conditioning, it has generally come to be referred to as metabolic conditioning or MetCon.

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There certainly seems to be a trend in group fitness lately towards bootcamp based exercise classes. These classes generally are performed at a higher intensity and combine conditioning and resistance training exercises. As we can see from this and previous posts, such a combination produces a very powerful fat burning effect. We can enhance this effect by making proper exercise choices, emphasizing full body movements that are metabolically demanding. Good examples of these kinds of exercises include a litany of kettlebell movements (swings, cleans, jerks, snatches, tactical lunges, squats, etc.) as well as bodyweight exercises (burpees, mountain climbers, jump squats/lunges, and so on) and a host of others. This is without a doubt the most efficient way to train for conditioning or fat loss, and the incorporation of resistance training may build some muscle as well, further increasing metabolism, strength, and improving appearance.

To recap: resistance training is very effective for not only increasing strength and muscle mass, but also for reducing body fat. When performed with enough intensity, resistance training and conditioning results in an increase in metabolism and a favourable fat-burning state. The combination of resistance training and high intensity conditioning is generally referred to as metabolic conditioning or MetCon.

And to shamelessly plug myself: Kelowna Kettlebell's kettlebell bootcamps incorporate resistance training as well as MetCons into their workouts. In my opinion and experience, this is the best way to efficiently generate improvements across a variety of markers such as body composition, conditioning, and strength. As well, the workouts are progressive, building upon skills and movements learned in previous workouts. On top of getting a great workout, we'll be teaching you to move better and hopefully improving your joint health and mobility.

Fire me an email at kelownakettlebell@gmail.com if you're interested in our classes.

Until next time,

- Jonathan