December 2007

The Science of Nutrition

            As we discussed in last months article, “The Science of Fitness,” the fitness field is preyed upon by all kinds of people and companies looking to build a niche for their product. The focus of the previous article was to inform you about that reality of fitness scams specifically related to fitness equipment. This article takes a similar approach, but it is geared towards supplement scams, myths and misinformation.

            Just like infomercials for fitness equipment, there is no shortage of supplements promising to deliver the “quick fix.” These promises come in the form of herbs, vitamins, minerals, extracts and more. They travel to us from China, the Mediterranean, and even Africa. They hide in grocery stores, gas stations, fitness and nutrition stores and gyms. With these supplements on every corner tempting and luring us with their seductive promises, it is more important than ever to be discerning in the things that we take as fact. The principle is the same as with fitness equipment infomercials. You don’t have to have a degree in exercise science to pick out the good from the bad. You just have to know the basics. Actually, the basics in this article may sound strikingly similar to the basics in the previous article.

            As discussed in the “The Science of Fitness,” the goal of exercise equipment designed for fat loss should be to burn the most calories. This makes sense because burning calories is how weight is lost. This principle will transfer nicely to the arena of nutrition as well. When considering a nutrition program designed for weight loss, the major component (although certainly not the only component) is how many calories are consumed. With nutrition, we just look at the other side of the equation. While exercise purposes to expend more calories, a nutrition focus moderates calorie intake. This elicits optimum weight loss results.

            So how does this information tie into weeding out the nutrition and supplement myths and misinformation? Well, a course in the Science of Nutrition will prove helpful here. Only protein, carbohydrates and fats contain calories. Moderating the intake of these will result in weights loss. Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals simply aid in the digestion and utilization of these macronutrients in your body. They are important for optimizing your diet, but will only indirectly affect weight loss. Understanding this makes myth busting easy. If a product promises large quantities of weight loss in small amounts of time by the ingestion of a single or even a combination of vitamins or minerals, that product does not line up with the Science of Nutrition. Some products claim to boost your metabolism so that you burn more calories. This claim of metabolism boosting may be true but only to an extent. This boost will likely amount to less than 50 calories. Admittedly, 50 calories is better than zero calories, but 50 calories alone will not result in the weight loss that many supplements promise. These products would not mix well with the Science of Nutrition either.

            In the end, it’s important to remember a few major things. First, as far as chemistry, biology and exercise science have discovered, there is no way to achieve weight loss without a change in eating habits and activity levels. Second, supplement companies are mostly regulated to make sure that their products won’t hurt you, not on how effective they are. They don’t have to have their claims validated by any regulatory organization. Finally, supplements are called such for a reason. They are meant to supplement an already healthy nutrition and exercise regimen. Using them in this light may just keep you from being duped.

November 2007

The Science of Fitness

Knowledge is quite a powerful commodity. It can be built upon with more knowledge until we reach a whole new level of understanding. In today’s world there exists so much knowledge that limitless specialties have developed. While this specialization has enhanced our lives, it also poses some dangers. People or organizations that hold knowledge of a specialty can manipulate products and consumers alike to make their product seem like something it’s not. Fitness is no exception. This article will first explain a basic principle of fitness science to equip you to discern good fitness claims from bad ones. Secondly, it will give you a few tips to boost your workouts. No gimmicks!

One of the most preyed upon areas of fitness is weight loss. Every infomercial seems to have a product that roasts body fat and tones stomachs. Each product comes with convincing testimonies and success pictures. Besides, could they really say it on TV if it wasn’t true? They can and they do. TV is infested with gimmicks promising results that, according to science, make no sense; hence the need for a little discernment.

Weight loss occurs when you expend more calories than you consume. To get rid of one pound of body fat, you have to burn, in excess of what you eat, 3500 calories. Just as an example, it could take 50-60 minutes to burn 500 calories on an elliptical trainer. At this rate, it would take you one week of working out seven days to burn one pound of fat.

The goal of any piece of weight loss equipment, whether you know it or not, is to make your body burn calories. Your body will burn the most calories when you are using the most muscles. Jogging burns more calories than riding a stationary bike because you are activating more muscles. This information is indispensable when evaluating fitness claims. If a product claims to “zap fat” as you rock back and forth on what appears to be an over inflated pool floatie, this product doesn’t line up with fitness science. Conversely, if you see a advertisement for a routine that burns fat by activating your entire body and using resistance bands or weights, that fits pretty well with the science of fitness.

Finally, beware of extreme claims or claims that sound too good to be true. Some examples are “targets belly fat,” “lose 10 inches per week,” “lose weight without diet or exercise.” Sure, weight loss can be simple, but it takes work. Body fat is shed from the entire body when you workout; you can’t target just the belly. Weight loss should happen at a moderate pace, not 10 inches a week, and it requires extra effort often in the form of diet and exercise.

Here are some tips that will improve results and still line up with the science of fitness. Since activating as much muscle as possible is the key to burning calories, try some of the following. When lifting weights, use more of your body. Leg extensions are good, but squats are better because you’re standing and using the entire body instead of sitting in a machine. Incorporate full body exercises. Instead of just a lunge, add a shoulder press with dumbbells. Instead of using a bench for your chest exercise, try using a stability ball. It activates balance muscles you wouldn’t use on a bench. Chose your cardio equipment based on how many limbs you mobilize and how much effort it takes. A bike is good, but an elliptical trainer is better. A flat jog is good, but an uphill jog is better.

While this isn’t an exhaustive course on fitness science, is will help you be less gullible and more efficient when it comes to fitness. The bottom line; when late night fitness infomercials start airing, its probably time for bed.     

October 2007

So What About My Diet? Part 2

In part one of this nutrition series, we discussed macronutrients; protein, carbohydrates and fats. I made a case for using each of these components in healthy amounts. Just as macronutrients are important, so are micronutrients important.

Micronutrients are substances like vitamins and minerals that the body needs in small amounts for proper cell, organ, and tissue function. Don’t be fooled, though. They are needed in small amounts, but in a big ways! Consider again the analogy of building a house. You can’t build a house without sufficient wood, paint and cement, nor can you build a house without nails, screws or other small materials. Just because they are small doesn’t make them unimportant.

In order to understand their importance, let’s talk about the broad affects that a lack of micronutrients will bring. For the sake of our survival, the body is very good at storing nutrients for a rainy day. In the event of excess calcium in the diet, the body stores this surplus in connective tissues and bones making a dense, healthy skeleton. However, in the event that we experience a long term calcium deficiency, our body will break down the skeleton to use the calcium in other needed areas. This leads to osteoporosis or weak bones. Calcium is not the only micronutrient of concern, though. Magnesium, iron, folate, and many other vitamins and minerals are important. If your food intake does not supply these vitamins, either the body breaks apart its own tissue to get them, or it will get your attention with the development of a disease.

You may be asking how this will affect your fitness. After all, you just want to lose fat. Can’t you worry about that calcium deficiency later? Actually, no; that calcium deficiency may turn into the very thing that is keeping you from losing that excess fat. Studies have shown that people who eat excess calories but eat those calories from healthy sources lose substantially more weight than those who eat less food but from unhealthy sources. So we can talk calorie balance until we are blue in the face, but it would be a waste of time if you weren’t meeting your vitamin and mineral needs. A body that is constantly breaking down it’s own tissues to get nutrients will be much less likely to give up it’s body fat stores, so let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot.

We know its important to get those nutrients, but how do we do it? The answer is much simple. If you remember you elementary school days with the food guide pyramid, then this shouldn’t be new. The food guide pyramid is important because, followed correctly, it yields most all of the vitamins and minerals that you need as well as a healthy combination of protein, carbohydrates and fats. With your body in this optimal state, it will be much more inclined to release its body fat as you exercise.

Now that you have a heightened awareness of the need for a healthy diet, here is a quick snap shot of how to achieve that. Become skilled at substituting processed food with whole foods. If it comes in a bag or a box, there is probably a more healthy option out there. Try to find the food as it would appear in nature. Eat 2-3 cups of fresh fruits each day. Try to find 3-5 servings of different colored vegetables throughout the day. Find 6-11 servings of grains and then 2-3 servings of dairy and meat each.

Perhaps these recommendations sound a bit redundant or cliché by now, but our bodies haven’t changed. We still need to follow these recommendations if we want a healthy, fit body. If you feed your body what it does need, it will be less stingy when giving up the stuff it doesn’t need, like that cumbersome spare tire.

Trevor Carden

Pinnacle Club

tcarden.fitness@gmail.com 

September 2007

So what about my Diet? Part 1

    A few months ago, we spent some time talking about how to figure your body’s energy needs; specifically how many calories it needs. While that information is very important it’s just one piece to the puzzle. Only knowing how many calories you need and not what kind of calories is like only knowing how many square feet you want in a house but not knowing what you need for materials. This article and the next few articles take the time to explore some of the more important details of a healthy diet.
    Macronutrients are of the utmost importance. Macronutrients refers to protein, carbohydrates and fats. Aside from alcohol, which is not a nutrient, they are the only source of energy for the body. Each of these macronutrients has its myths about them, so we will spend this article talking about these.
    First is protein. Protein is often misunderstood to be the “silver bullet” in fitness. While important for any function of the body, it is not the answer but a component of the answer. Our bodies use protein for everything from building muscle and making hair, to transporting nutrients throughout the body. Protein is especially important when maintaining an exercise program. When exercising our body tissues such as muscle and cartilage are broken down. Your body rebuilds these tissues stronger to adapt to this new challenge. Protein is the material used for this rebuilding process. The recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, for protein is 0.8-1.0 grams per kilogram of body weight. Most Americans eat plenty of protein to meet their needs.
    Carbohydrates have received much blame for the obesity epidemic. Beware, however, of diets that recommend low carbs. Carbohydrates are your bodies preferred energy source during exercise. Without them, workouts are mediocre and often dangerous. Another reason that low-carb diets are dangerous is that rapid weight loss from these diets often comes as much from muscle as from fat. As discussed in the strength training article, the whole idea of lifting weights is to build lean muscle mass to increase your metabolism. If your body burns this muscle off, your metabolism plummets allowing all of the weight to be regained. A healthy diet will consist of 45 to 60 percent of total calories from carbohydrates.  
    Finally, fat. As most of you recoil from the mere thought of fat, let me assure you, fat is as vital to your body as protein. Fat is used to cushion and insulate your organs. It is part of the structure of cellular vessels. It is what allows important vitamins to be transported throughout your body. Also, it is a major source of energy throughout the day! The problem we see with fat is not fat itself but an over consumption of it. Each macronutrient contains calories. Fat contains nine calories per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates contain only four. This means that the same weight of high fat food will have more than twice the calories of a food high in protein or carbohydrates. So, fat isn’t bad, but it must be taken in moderation. Your fat intake should be 10 to 30 percent of total calorie intake. If you eat 1700 calories per day, only 170 to 510 of those should come from fat.
    Each macronutrient is important. Unfortunately, each one has been exploited in some way to market a weight loss product. Don’t be fooled by a guy trying to make a buck. You need each macronutrient for a healthy diet and taking too much or not enough of any one will only have adverse effects.
If you would like to contact Trevor Carden you can reach him at the Pinacle Club in Omaha, Ne. or email Trevor at  tcarden.fitness@gmail.com.  

August 2007 

 The Final Checkpoint

            Our fitness roadmap is nearly complete. We have discussed nutrition and cardio, and now it time for the final checkpoint. While this final checkpoint will help to reach a healthy and fit body, it is most important for maintaining that body.

            The final checkpoint is strength training, or weight lifting. While there are many different strength training techniques, we’ll discuss it from a macro level and save the details for other articles. The main goal of strength training is to build lean body mass meaning, muscle tissues, connective tissues and anything else that’s not fat tissue. Strength and stability also come from strength training, but the lean body mass is the most important part when considering body composition and a healthy life.

              Your body adapts to regular, consistent exercise. In response to strength training, your body creates new body tissues and fluids to keep up with the new demands. As your body needs more strength to maintain exercise, it will create new muscle fibers to create that strength. Also, it makes more blood cells to carry more oxygen to tissue. These adaptations and more are why strength training is so important for reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight. New muscle fibers and blood cells require energy to survive. That energy comes in the form of calories. The more lean body mass you have, the more calories your body consumes. If you remember our discussion on nutrition, losing weight requires a calorie deficit. Strength training adds lean body mass that consumes calories 24 hours per day, helping you stay at your calorie goal much easier.

            Strength training has other benefits. It increases bone density. It assists in posture, endurance, muscle balance and stability. Your body, after age thirty, loses an alarming 10% of lean mass every decade. This is why weight gain is so common. The loss of lean tissue greatly decreases the number of calories a body needs, allowing for easy weight gain. Strength training helps maintain or even build that lean mass back up. Finally, adding muscle in conjunction with losing fat gives a lean and toned look.

            Now that you understand what strength training is, let’s discuss how it’s done. While we used formulas for the other fitness components, we use a more subjective method here. That being said, you will bear more responsibility for making your workouts effective. The harder you work, the greater the reward.

            When lifting weights, safety comes first. Pulling muscles, pinching nerves and breaking toes are real dangers for irresponsible exercisers. Using a manageable weight and using proper form are most important. By a manageable weight, I am referring to one that challenges you throughout the entire exercise, but doesn’t put you at risk for losing control. By proper form, I am referring to correct posture; specifically keeping your abs tight, head looking forward, with shoulders back and chest out. This will put your body in proper alignment.

            When constructing a strength training program, balance should be of primary concern. In other words, make sure that each muscle group is exercised evenly. A good beginning routine should happen 3 times per week and consist of 10-12 exercises. Chest, back, shoulders, legs and abs are the most important muscle groups to target. Work each group with 2-3 exercises. Finally, we must determine repetitions and sets. A repetition is one movement of the exercise and a set is a group of movements. Begin with 2-3 sets of 12-15 repetitions for each exercise. When you can complete all of the sets with a particular weight for 15 reps, increase the weight and begin back at 12 repetitions. This will give you a good progression in your workout.

            These tips are very basic, but will give you a good start to developing a routine. We will build on these tips in upcoming articles. Remember that cardio and a healthy diet will help most in getting you to your goals, but strength training is what will help you maintain your goals. Add strength training to your other components, and keep reading as we get into greater detail in the next months.

If you would like to contact Trevor Carden you can reach him at the Pinacle Club in Omaha, Ne. or email Trevor at  tcarden.fitness@gmail.com.     

July 2007

The next checkpoint

 We have been creating a following a roadmap to fitness. We have our map in order. We also have a compass, our nutrition, to guide us. Our tools are all in order. Now it’s time to use those tools as we pursue our next checkpoint.
 That checkpoint is cardiovascular exercise or cardio. Cardio is any activity that elevates your heart rate for an extended period of time, thereby strengthening your heart, lungs and blood vessels. Last month we saw how Americans eat too many calories. Part of the reason that the amount of food we eat is excessive is that we are not active enough to balance calories with exercise. If we eat more calories that we burn off, we gain weight. Cardio is a great way of balancing our nutrition with our activity. This article will use the FITT principle as a template. The acronym stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type. 
 The main focus of cardio should be your heart rate, also known as intensity. You can exercise for hours with your heart rate at 75 beats per minute with little benefit. Elevating your heart rate must be the primary goal. We can do a small calculation to find your target heart rate. All you need is your age and resting heart rate. The formula is below.

[(220 – age) – resting heart rate] x (percent of maximum heart rate) + resting heart rate

“Percent of maximum heart rate.” determines how hard the exercise is. The number should be between 0.6 and 0.85 with beginners using the smaller number and the advanced exerciser progressing towards the larger number. For example, Mary is 35 years old and has a resting heart rate of 70 beats per minute. She is an intermediate exerciser and will be exercising at 75 percent of her maximum heart rate. Her formula goes as follows.

[(220-35) – 70] x 0.70 + 70 = 151

This formula estimates that Mary should perform her cardio workouts at a heart rate of about 150 beats per minute.

Next are the “F” and “T” components of FITT. These are frequency and time. “Frequency” dictates the number of workouts in a one-week period and “time” sets the duration of each workout. The USDA along with the Department of Health and Human Services recommends 60-90 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise most days of the week for sustained weight loss. “60-90 minutes” is the time. This time goal can be accumulated throughout the day in multiple shorter workouts. Start our with shorter workouts and increase the time as you go. “Most days of the week” (4-7 days) is the frequency. “Moderate to vigorous” is the intensity, which we already stated should be between 60% and 85% of your maximum heart rate.
The final FITT component is “T,” for type. What mode of exercise should you do? The activity should be rhythmic to keep an elevated heart rate. The best types are running, brisk walking, swimming, biking or using an elliptical trainer. Sports can also be very effective as long as they are intense enough to challenge your heart rate.
Because fitness can be confusing, the FITT principle is a good way to keep track of your fitness components. Exercise frequently, 4-7 times per week. Your heart rate is the most important variable. Keep it elevated to 60% - 85% of your maximum heart rate using the formula above. Your workouts should be between 60-90 minutes each, happening 4-7 times per week. Finally, pick an appropriate type of exercise. It should challenge your heart to achieve an appropriate intensity. Begin implementing these principles into your fitness plan, and next month we will discuss our final checkpoint.
You can contact Trevor Carden, Personal Trainer, at Pinnacle Club in Omaha or email: tcarden.fitness@gmail.com

June 2007

Compasses and Roadmaps

           A map is great if you can connect its symbols to nearby landmarks, but what if everything looks the same and you don’t know which way is north? You may as well use the map to kindle a signal fire, because it’s useless without a compass a compass.

In fitness nutrition is your compass. It is what guides your cardiovascular and your strength training routines. This article will help you estimate how much you should eat daily. Down the road, we will discuss “when” and “what” to eat, and how that will affect the rest of your workout regimen.

I stated in my last article that the average American eats more than they need. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 500 calories a day too much. That’s enough to gain one pound per week. Obviously, then, it is important to understand how much food you actually need.

What factors affect your body’s needs? There are many, actually; height, weight, age and more. Because of all the variables, we use formulas and a bit of trial-and-error. I will discuss one of the most widely used formulas, called the Harris-Benedict Formula. It considers height, weight, age and gender. You’ll need to know each of those measurements. Below is the formula. If you like math, you will enjoy this next part.

For Women:

655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Men:

66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in year)

Put each measurement where designated and calculate the formula. This number you calculate is your Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. It estimates the number of calories you would burn if you remained in bed all day. Because you’re active, however, we must figure in your activity level. Below is a list of activity levels and values for each.

1.      Light (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): BMR x 1.375

2.      Moderate (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): BMR x 1.55

3.      Intense (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.725

Find the level that best describes the workout schedule you will adopt. Now take your BMR and multiply it by your activity level. This is the amount of calories that you need to maintain your weight. To lose weight, subtract 500 – 800 calories and you have the number of calories you need daily for weight loss.

For example, Billy is a 30-year-old, six foot (72 inch) male who wants to lose weight. He weighs 250 pounds and plans to exercise 3-5 days per week.

Step 1: 66 + (6.23 x 250) + (12.7 x 72) - (6.8 x 30) = 2333.9

Step 2: 2333.9 x 1.55 = 3617.6

Step 3: 3617.6 – 800 = 2817.6 calories/day

The downside to this formula is that the more over weight a person is, the less accurate the formula is. A very overweight person will overestimate his calorie needs. Here is how to compensate for this issue.

Billy weighs 250 pounds but wants to be 210 pounds. Do the formula for his current weight, yielding 2817 calories. Then do the formula for his goal weight, yielding 2431 calories. Then average the two for 2624 calories. Use this average number. If you don’t see results with this number of calories, slowing reduce it by 100-200 per week.

Many people don’t lose weight because they don’t understand how much food their bodies need. But you have a compass, a formula, and you know how to use it. Just head due north, and next month we’ll find our next checkpoint.

May 2007 

Road map to fitness

It’s like entering a maze. Every turn leads you down a narrow, unfamiliar corridor. You begin exploring each path one by one, but what happens when you run into a dead end? You can try again, becoming more confused than when you began, or you can look at a map; you can make a plan.
Fitness is not so unlike a maze. What should I eat and when? What exercises should I do and for how long? What about supplements? Without a plan, you will guess your way into a dead end. This article is designed to give you an overview of the main components of fitness and their purposes. In the articles following, I will deal with each component individually.
The major components of fitness are nutrition, strength training, and cardiovascular training. Each one is of great importance and should be considered a requirement of any fitness program. 
I will begin with nutrition, because it is the most important component of the three. Any client with whom I have seen success has taken their nutrition seriously.
To understand the importance of what you eat, you must first understand how nutrition affects your fitness goals. This article assumes the goal of weight loss since most Americans desire such a result. The average American needs around 2000-2500 calories per day to maintain their weight. The average American, however, eats around 2500-3000 calories per day. That’s enough to gain 50 pounds per year! In order to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories than you burn each day.
Sound nutrition begins with understanding your body has needs and catering to those needs. Your body has a specific range of calories that it needs each day. Exceeding that range results in weight gain even if you exercise. Your body needs specific amounts of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It needs those nutrients from the right types of foods and it needs them at the right times of day. The better your nutrition is, the better your results will be.
A second component of fitness is cardiovascular training, commonly known as cardio. This is, by definition, the activity that strengthens your heart, lungs and blood vessels. It is also a major factor in weight loss. Both of these effects are important. With a stronger heart and lungs, your body is better able to participate in exercise. You can exercise longer and harder which factors into better results. For people pursuing weight loss, cardio is of great importance. Remember when I mentioned that weight loss comes from burning more calories than you consume? Cardio is the best way of doing that.
Strength training is the final component of focus. First, let us get a concept of how the body is constructed. Inside of your body lie your organs and bones. Attached to those bones are your muscles. On top of your muscles lies your fat. Your skin covers it all. Assuming again that weight loss is your goal; you’re probably looking to see some muscles toning and definition. That comes by reducing body fat. Because your muscles lie beneath your fat, you have to reduce that fat to see the definition of the muscle. As I previously explained, this reduction of body fat comes mostly from your diet and your cardio. So what good is strength training? Well, your body requires calories to maintain muscle. So by adding lean muscle, your body burns more calories during exercise and even while you sleep. This makes weight loss easier. Not to mention, when you reduce your body fat, you will see that lean, toned muscles underneath.
These are the main components of fitness in a nutshell: nutrition, cardiovascular training, and strength training. I hope this article has shown you the importance of having a map. Next month, we will begin looking intently at each component of that map.
If you would like to contact Trevor Carden you can reach him at the Pinacle Club in Omaha, Ne. or email Trevor at  tcarden.fitness@gmail.com.