The Battle For Your Body!
MEN’S HEALTH/APRIL 2011
The battle goes on whether you’re awake or asleep, on the couch or on the treadmill. On one side, the good guy: Muscle. On the other: Fat. Fat hates Muscle and the feeling is mutual. Muscle burns fat for energy, which is why building and maintaining muscle is key to losing flab and sculpting a lean, toned body. Muscle boosts metabolism, helping you burn calories day and night. Muscle helps protect your from heart disease, back pain, arthritis, and depression. The following truths will help Muscle conquer its flabby nemesis-once and for all.
Truth #1: Burning calories in the gym is (almost) a waste of time
Sure, burning calories is great but the energy you expend in the gym isn’t as big a deal as the LED readouts on the cardio machines might make it seem. In fact, we all have three distinct types of “burns” that make up our metabolism.
Burn #1-Basal (Resting) Metabolism
Your Basal Metabolism rate, or BMR, accounts for 60-75% of your overall metabolism. Surprisingly it represents the calories your burn doing nothing at all. It’s fueled by your heart beating, your lungs working to breathe, and even your cells dividing.
Burn #2-Digestive Metabolism
This burn results from the thermal effect of food, or TEF. Simply digesting food-converting carbohydrates to sugar and protein to amino acids-typically burns 10% of your daily calories. Your burn more calories digesting protein than you do digesting carbohydrates and fat-about 25 calories for every 100 consumed, versus zero to 10 for carbs and fat.
Burn #3-Exercise and Movement Metabolism
This part of your metabolism includes your gym workouts and other physical activities such as jogging or playing softball (called “exercise-activity thermo genesis,” or EAT). It also includes your countless incidental movements throughout the day, like turning the pages of this magazine (“non-exercise activity thermo genesis,” or NEAT). So why is it so hard to lose weight just by exercising? Exercise and movement account for only 15 to 30 % of your fat burn. Up to 85 percent of your calorie burn in a given day has nothing to do with moving your body. But that doesn’t mean you should skip the gym-you just need to know how to make exercise work for you.
Truth #2: The fatter you get, the fatter you’ll get
Fat loves company. The more fat you open the door to, the harder you’ll find it to stop even more fat from inviting itself in. Fat slows your calorie burn and burns about 2 calories a day to support a pound of muscle. However, muscle is metabolically very active. At rest, 1 pound of skeletal muscle burns 3x as many calories to sustain itself. Fat actually fights back too. The main fat culprit is a nasty variety called visceral fat, which resides behind your internal organs. It releases its mischief by releasing a variety of substances called adipokines. Adipokines include compounds that raise your risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, arterial inflammation, and high blood sugar. Visceral fat also interferes with an important hormone called adiponectin, which regulates metabolism. The more visceral fat you have, the less adiponectin your body releases and the slower your metabolism is. So fat literally begets more fat.
Truth #3: Weight training is the ultimate fat fighter
While muscle burns calories, bigger muscle burns more calories. That’s because the physical work you need to do to build and maintain added muscle can have a dramatic effect on your overall metabolism. Research shows that a singular weight-training session can spike your caloric burn for up to 39 hours after you lift. The long-term calorie burn you enjoy from building muscle does more than just eliminate extra weight. It specifically targets fat! A study conducted by Jeff S. Volek, Ph.D., R.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Connecticut, showed that people who built muscle lost almost 40 percent more fat on restricted-calorie diets than nonexercisers and aerobic exercisers. Another reason weight training is the ultimate fat fighter: The more muscle you have, the better your body uses the nutrients you consume, and the less likely it is to store your food as fat.
Is Gluten Making Us Fat?
MEN’S HEALTH MAGAZINE/MARCH 2011 By: Matthew Solan
Turkey and tomato on wheat. Whole-grain pasta. Healthy right? Maybe. But more and more people believe these foods are part of a potentially dangerous trap. They claim that sluggishness and weight gain can be blamed on an insidious substance hiding in wheat and many other common grains: gluten. Supermarket shelves are filled with gluten-free breads, soups, and cake mixes-even gluten free ketchup and soy sauces. According to market research firm Mintel, 10% of new goods launched in 2010 featured a “gluten-free” claim, up from only 2 percent 5 years earlier. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, as well as in many common food additives. It’s what gives dough elasticity and baked goods their satisfying chewiness. Gluten is found in many of the familiar weight gain culprits: pizza, beer, burgers, and pancakes. “Gluten itself probably isn’t the reason people gain weight,” says Lara Field, M.S., R.D. “Eating too many refined carbohydrates is what expands the waistline.” Commit to staying gluten-free and your food choices can become a snapshot of healthy eating-fruits, vegetables, brown rice, seeds and nuts, along with meat, fish, eggs, and milk products.
Avoiding gluten also means you’re likely to adopt other whole grains and flours that lack gluten, such as buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, millet, teff, sorghum, and wild rice (which is not related to white rice). A gluten-free diet can work, but dealing with a diet’s restrictions can be daunting. Ironically, the boom in gluten-free products isn’t necessarily helpful to those looking to lose weight. “You can buy gluten-free versions of practically every type of wheat-based food-pizza, pasta, cookies, you name it,” says Tricia Thompson, M.S., R.D. But here’s the catch: Healthy sounding gluten-free items often contain just as many calories as the originals. Avoiding gluten takes constant monitoring-the same attention to detail you need to excel in your workouts. Mindful eating is key. After all, “you don’t need to go gluten-free to avoid refined processed carbs,” says Thompson.
