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Okay, I’ve been on vacation for the last few days so I’m a little late to the party on this one, but if you’ve been following my blog lately you’ll know that I’ve been really excited about the launch of Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body.

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But let’s backtrack a bit.

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Last year Rick Kaselj put together a great product covering the many possible muscle imbalances in the lower body featuring some bright fitness minds like Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Dean Somerset, Eric Beard, Kevin Yates, and Rick himself.  I was blown away with the quality of the information and since then the product has been purchased by over 1100 fitness professionals all over the world!

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Fast forward to today and Rick has pulled together yet another all star cast to cover all of the muscle imbalances of the upper body in an 8 part video series.  Check ‘em out!

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Corrective Exercise Strategies for Athletes (and Meatheads, too) - Tony Gentilcore

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Avoiding the Top 10 Upper Body Training Bloops and Blunders - Tony Gentilcore

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Myofascial Training for the Upper Body – Dean Somerset

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Advanced Core Training & Conditioning - Dean Somerset

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Linking Breathing with Rehab, Training and Performance - Dr. Jeff Cubos

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Picking the Right Soft Tissue Tool for the Problem - Dr. Jeff Cubos

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Unraveling Muscle Imbalances in the Shoulder - Rick Kaselj

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Neck Exercises for Prevention, Rehabilitation and Strength - Rick Kaselj

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As of right now I’ve only watch Tony’s first seminar and the presentation by Dr. Jeff Cubos on breathing and I can say in all honesty that I think they were both solid.  Despite all the talk about the effects of breathing on training, I’ve never really taken much of it to heart until now.  Given this new interpretation I’ll definitely be making this a consideration in my programs from here forward.

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Now that I’m back from vacation I’m going to be digging in to finish watching the rest of the seminars starting with Dean’s mysofascial training lecture which I think should be interesting given the popularity of discussing fascia in the strength and conditioning inudstry these days.

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Why I Like This Series

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You might be wondering at this point how I can confidently do a review of a product I have yet to finish watching myself and that is certainly a fair question…to which I have 6 answers.

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1.  The People Involved

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I have shared discussions with and followed the work of all of the people featured in this series.  I know what they’re about and I have strong doubts that any one them would ever fail to deliver great content.  Period.

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2.  The History of the Product

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Last year’s product was fantastic, very well recieved, and continues to sell even a year later.  The track record of this product speaks for itself.  Fly by night operations that sell crappy products are NOT still selling products over a year later.

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3.  Two Great Lectures

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What I do know of THIS year’s product is that I’ve only watched two lectures to date and so far we’re batting 1000.  Even if the rest of the product totally sucked (which I’m pretty damn sure it won’t), I’d feel like I got my money’s worth because I’ve already learned a ton.  Far be it for me to give away what I learned, but you can trust that I’m very pleased with the quality of the lectures so far.

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4.   The MASSIVE Discount

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I really didn’t want to delay my review because I didn’t want you to miss out on the introductory price.  If you purchase the product before the end of TOMORROW (Thursday) you can scoop up Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body for only $77.  After that the price will go up to $147. 

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5.  There is a 100% Money Back Guarantee

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If you purchase the program now (and score yourself the aforementioned discount) you can check it out for 60 days and if you don’t absolutely love it you can get your money back with no questions asked.

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6.  You Can Watch Them At Home

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In a semi-unrelated point to the rest of those above, I have to say that I don’t like travelling a lot to conferences.   These days I just don’t have much time to be away from my work and my family for extended periods of time and I’m sure many of you can relate.  Compound that with the fact that travelling always ends up costing tons in terms of airfare, hotels, food, and so on.  Whenever I can help it, I learn from home.  Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body allows me to do just that and I very much appreciate it.

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7.  Lifetime Updates

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Each time the product is updated you get updates for FREE!  And you have access to the product forever so if you accidentally delete the downloads (or your laptop crashes and you lose everything like I did) you can log in and get access again.

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8.  Continuing Education Credits

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If you’re a fitness professional and you need to get CEUs or CECs to maintain your certification you can get those as a result of purchasing MIRU.

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Get it Now to Save $$$

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So here’s the deal, if you’re a fitness professional and you want to separate yourself from the rest of the playing field with some top notch information from some very bright minds then you should pick up Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body now!  I’m enjoying it so far and I’m confident you will too.

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Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body <– Pick it up here!

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PS: Remember that the price goes up at the end of day TOMORROW.

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Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body <– Buy Now and Save!

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So here’s the deal…I recently connected with one of my long time fitness idols Tom Venuto. If you don’t know Tom, he’s a really down to earth guy, evidence based (you know I love this), and he’s been around in this industry so long that I think the first time he wrote down his thoughts on training and nutriton they were probably carved on stone tablets. Okay…I’m exaggerating a bit here, but Tom’s book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle was first released almost a decade ago so you know that computers weren’t quite what they are today.

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In short, when it comes to body compostion change, Tom has seen the trends come and go and his program still stands as one of the best and most popular on the internet.
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As a result of our recent email discussions I cracked open Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle again and was honestly as impressed as I was a few years ago when I read it for the first time. Perhaps even more so because it is a stark contrast to a lot of what I’m seeing on the internet these days.
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In recent years, I feel that training just to look good has taken a back seat to being “functional” (whatever that means) and we’ve been made to feel guilty about just wanting to look good naked. I think that reading Tom’s book again made me realize that this IS okay. In fact, it is normal. We all want to look and feel good and we shouldn’t have to feel bad about it. Heck, isn’t that why most of us started training in the first place?!?
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I guess what I liked most about Tom’s program is that it is scientifically supported AND it has been battle tested for over a decade on thousands of people in over 100 countries! In short, it freaking works!
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So if I read it and liked it so much why didn’t I tell you about it sooner?

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Because during my conversations with Tom he mentioned that he was in the midst of putting together an absolutely epic transformation contest where those with the best results over the course of 14 weeks would get to go on an all expense paid vacation to the beautiful white sand beachies of Maui and I didn’t want to mention anything about it until I knew all the details.

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In addition, he’s informed me that there are other prizes like cash, iPods, and Kindles which is pretty friggin’ awesome!  Oh…and you don’t even have to win to score this stuff.  If you sign up to be a member of the Burn the Fat Inner Circle you can win prizes for just being the most supportive member!  How cool is that?!?

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So basically, if you purchase Tom’s ultimate body composition changing program Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle or a membership to his “Inner Circle” you are automatically elligable to enter this 98 day summer challenge for a trip to Maui and all sorts of other awesome stuff.

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So here you go…you can learn more about the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book and start looking the best you’ve ever looked here:

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 Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

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But let’s be honest, you want to know where you’re going and you want to see pictures and video of the resort right?  Yeah…I did too.  You can check out the contest deets, the resort, and info on the ultra supportive and motivating Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle Inner Circle here:

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Contest Details, Resort Photos, and Videos

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So that’s it.  Get the product, enter the contest, look great naked, and show off your hard earned body on the beach in Maui.

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But there is only one catch

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While you can most certainly pick up your copy of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle at any time, the ability to enter this contest ends at the end of the day on Wednesday, May 25th.  In other words, if you don’t act fast, you may get lean, but you sure aren’t going to Maui…not for free anyway.  This isn’t one of those times when you can think about it forever.  If you want to make a change, the time is right now…or you’ll miss out.  And like I said, you don’t want to miss out on this:

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Contest Details, Resort Photos, and Videos

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Full Disclosure

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I should note that if you purchase through one of the links on this page I do make a commission on the sale that I will use to fund this blog as well as support my family and do generally awesome stuff.  However, I would NEVER recommend a product I don’t believe in because:

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A) This is morally wrong.  I’m just one of those guys that wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if he was scamming people out of their hard earned money all the time.  Being that I’m in the fitness industry, this trait is a giant pain in the ass as I could most certainly make more money otherwise.  But the fact remains that I can’t bring myself to be anything but honest with my readers.

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B) If I break your trust, I lose my readership.  Frankly, I know that a lot of people have been duped by crazy fitness products and I know it would be easy to convince some people to spend money once.  But the fact of the matter is, if the product I recommend sucks, that person is probably not going to trust me again and they’ll never purchase anything I recommend again (thereby eliminating any future chance of making commissions or selling them a product of my own).

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C) If you return the product, I actually LOSE money.  Basically, if you purchase a product I might make a few bucks, but if you return the product I lose my commission and I pay a small fee for having had a return.  If I recommended crappy products I’d have tons of returns AND I’d be paying out of my pocket.  In the end, I could actually risk losing money on a promotion which is NOT GOOD.  So I only promote stuff I know works and I know you’re going to love because I want you to be successful and I want to not go broke in the process.

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So that’s it.  This recommendation for Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is totally legit!  It is a great product and from now until next Wednesday you have a chance to pick it up, get shredded, AND enter a contest to spend the end of your summer on a beautiful tropical beach in Maui.

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So go pick up Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle here:

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Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

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Or go check out the details for this incredible contest here:

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Contest Details, Resort Photos, and Videos

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Either way, the key here is to take action and to make this your leanest summer yet!  Get at it!

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A while back I was very fortunate to connect with a very bright guy named Chi Chiu and recently began having a discussion with him about Gary Taubes new book Why We Get Fat.  I meant to get around to purchasing and reviewing the book myself, but given Chi’s passion for the topic (and the fact that he’s an evidence based uber genius) I asked him to do a guest blog about it.  I have to say…he certainly didn’t disappoint.  If you’re thinking about purchasing or have already read Why We Get Fat, you need to read this!

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Take it away Chi!

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This is not your typical review, because at the time of writing it, I do not own the book nor have I read it. It would have been easy for me to simply buy the book, read it, and write you a review, but I chose not to. Instead I’ll let Gary Taubes himself, try to convince me, to buy his book.

Gary Who?

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Gary Taubes is a science writer who has a Masters in applied physics and one in journalism. He has written numerous articles, but became an overnight sensation with the most controversial article of 2002 in the New York Times, ‘What If It’s All a Big Fat Lie” in which the role of (saturated) fat as a cause of cardiovascular disease was questioned. A bestseller “Good Calories, Bad Calories” followed. Taubes has won several awards during his career and recently he published “Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It.”

Where to start?

Most coaches get annoyed when they get advice from people who have no real world experience. I don’t care that Gary Taubes is a writer-only, and is not in the trenches with us. I’ll judge him solely on the information he provides.  He recently started a new blog to promote his book and there are numerous podcasts and YouTube interviews available, so you can get a general sense of what the major concepts in his book are and whether it is worth spending your hard-earned money on.

My first impression of Taubes is that of a reasonable man, posing reasonable questions.  He does not defy the energy balance and he seems to be genuinely annoyed by the failure of the widely promoted low-fat dogma combined with exercise approach to combat obesity. So let’s see what else he’s got to say.
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The Significant 20 kcal

His first post on his blog is about the significant 20 kcal per day. It’s a thought experiment on how eating one or two bites (20 kcal) too many can lead to 2 pounds of excess fat a year and 40 pounds in a period of 20 years (365 x 20 kcal x 20 years / 3500). So when you overshoot only 1 energy percent of your energy requirement, obesity will be inevitable.

With only such a small margin, it would be impossible to maintain a stable weight for longer periods. He argues that the body does not have such an accurate bookkeeping system and that therefore the laws of thermodynamics, while true, cannot explain why we do or do not get fat.

The 20 kcal per day thought experiment is actually a classic one, with many variations found in textbooks. He uses it to ridicule the counting calories approach as a means to maintain or lose weight. In a podcast Taubes jokes that the laws of physics only make sense, when you apply math skills of an eighth grader. And although it’s amusing, that doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Whether the body has an accurate enough bookkeeping system or not, is actually irrelevant. Thermodynamics controls this process all by itself, because weight change is self-limiting. Those extra two bites lead to more mass, which needs to be maintained and carried around. This comes at an energy expense and quickly leads to energy equilibrium. The other way around is that losing weight will lead to less mass and lower resting metabolism. These natural restrictions create a bandwidth and explain perfectly why a set point can be reached without high precision bookkeeping (Katan MB 2010).

This is a well-known fact and physiologists have developed mathematical models that accurately predict the required energy surplus to gain a certain amount of mass during a specific period. According to one of those models, a woman in her twenties with a BMI of 23 needs an excess of 370 kcal per day to get to a BMI of 29 in a period of 30 years (Katan MB 2010), a far cry from the 20 kcal Taubes suggests. 

In the same post he devotes at least a dozen paragraphs on why thermodynamics does not explain why we get fat, while ridiculing experts in the process. He uses a restaurant analogy to show that the laws of physics will only tell you that a restaurant is crowded because more people went in then there went out.

Well, the restaurant analogy therefore tells you quite accurately why people get fat and even what to do. Hire a door bitch!

[Note from Mark : A door bitch is a person who stands outside of a bar or club alongside the bouncers and chooses which people beautiful people to let in and which to keep out.  Don’t worry…I had to look it up too]

Of course it doesn’t tell you why people want to get into the restaurant in the first place and he ridicules the experts for not knowing the answer. In my experience, authorities that tell you that they do not know the answer are usually the real experts. Unlike the dime a dozen wannabe gurus whom seem to have all the answers. Taubes also claims to have the answer which I will cover in the next section.

Although the laws of thermodynamics don’t tell you the complete story, they give you the boundaries. You cannot create something (mass) from nothing and the calories in / calories out concept is therefore not useless. After reading this post I was wondering whether this was representative for his book. The fact that he mentions that there is a whole chapter on the significant 20 kcal per day, suggests that the book must be filled with incorrect assumptions and useless over bloated analogies.

Why Diets Work, When They Do

While I found the first post somewhat amusing, the second blog post made me wonder whether I was actually wasting my time. The main concept of his post boils down to the following assumptions. 

1. Carbs are bad and make you fat

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2. Restricting calories is restricting carbs

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3. Weight loss through calorie restriction is carb restriction and any weight loss success may therefore be solely attributed to carb restriction. 

He covers a couple diet intervention studies and accuses the authors for not controlling the relevant variables, because they only control calories instead of carbs. The authors of the study actually only set out to control one single variable and that’s (the adherence to) the diet. Nothing wrong with that and for the most part they succeeded nicely. Adherence to the diet is the deciding factor, because it simply makes you eat less.

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Taubes then goes on that the hypothesis of carb restriction as a causal factor for weight loss, has never been tested and that therefore all results of the covered studies are unreliable. He needs more than 3800 words for this rant and fails to mention one of dozens metabolic ward studies (Grey N 1971, Kinsell LW 1964, Krehl WA 1976) that already refuted his unfounded assumption. No significant difference in weight loss has ever been established in studies designed to compare a low-carb with isocaloric high carb diet. The authors of the covered studies did not control the carb variable, because they already knew that particular answer. It would have been as useful as testing whether hot water is indeed warmer than cold water.

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Taubes articles and the increasingly popular paleo diet have fuelled the low-carb interest. They seem to inspire each other and Taubes does mention hunter-gatherer tribes more than once in his interviews. The general idea seems to be that hunter-gatherers eat low-carb.

Taubes mentions in a PODcast that Eskimo’s don’t eat carbs at all, while demonstrating great athleticism. This is a common misconception. I actually own a ‘carbs gone wild’ edition of an Inuit cookbook with no less than 240 pages exclusively with plant based recipes. That’s a whole lot of pages for a non-carb population. It comes as no surprise, that a study found that the Inuit actually have a daily carb intake of 127 grams  (Bang HO 1980). Taubes was of 20 times with the calories in/calories out calculation, but with the Eskimo’s he manages to miss the mark by 127 times. The 127 gram carbs may still be considered low-carb, but the Inuit are not living fossils nor are they representative for all hunter-gatherer tribes. The dietary pattern of the Kitava Indians for example, consists of around 70% carbs and yet obesity, diabetes, heart-disease and exercise for that matter, are non-existent in that tribe (Lindeberg S 1994). Paleo is not low-carb per se and carbs are not the causal factor for all western diseases.

It’s All Insulin, Bro!

In his third blog Taubes cites a couple of biochemistry books. The basic premise boils down to the following.

1. Insulin stimulates fat cells to accumulate fat while inhibiting fat mobilization

2. Chronic high insulin levels lead to insulin resistance and less uptake by the muscles and more uptake by the fat cells

3. Carbs lead to a high insulin response, which leads to B, which leads to A, which leads to why we get fat

He then goes to say that this insulin resistance is the underlying defect of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Notice that he states ‘the’, not one of them or a risk factor, but the defect. He also states ‘underlying’, not contributing, not shared, not correlated, but he suggests it’s the causal factor. We get fat because we become insulin resistant, seems to be his main message.

This does not explain why more than 25 percent of obese persons are not insulin resistant (Stefan N 2008, Wildman RP 2008). The statement that it is the underlying defect, is at least an exaggeration, but that does not mean that insulin resistance may not be one of the causal factors.

Taubes mentions a lot of rodent studies, because human studies on the subject do not exist, for good reasons. To study it, you need to shut down the insulin receptors, but then you’ll die within days, which is an inconvenience. The fact that there is not enough time to get you obese, is of course the major obstacle. The next best thing is to shut down the liver insulin receptors and that’s what researchers have done with the so-called “knock-out mice”.

Having no receptors will of course lead to 100% local insulin resistance, which progressed into systemic insulin resistance with these mice. This was an interesting finding, but even more interesting was the fact that the mice did not get obese (Cohen SE 2007, Michaels MD 2000). So the little evidence that actually exists on the topic, suggests that insulin resistance is not the causal factor of obesity. 

If the insulin hypothesis is the heart of his book, it’s flawed. Not to mention all the nitpicking I can do on the claims he makes on insulin physiology, but it would take multiple posts to debunk all of them, like carbs being the sole driver of insulin response or his rather incomplete picture on how fats get stored and oxidized, etc. I can only add that I find it shocking, how many of his ideas seem to be based on conflicted or even refuted theories.

Saturated Fat, Can You Handle Me Baby?

The last part of his third blog post and the main topic on his fourth is the diet-heart hypothesis. He refutes the idea that saturated fat (SFA) causes heart disease and I have to agree with him. A recent review (Mozaffarian D 2010) containing intervention studies, suggests that saturated fat increases coronary events, but they were mostly JADAD level 2 studies. In other words they were poorly controlled. If you have no idea what that means, may I suggest purchasing Mark’s product How to Read Fitness Research.

In the same year another publication (Ramsden CE 2010) showed no causal relation between SFA intake and coronary incidents. The authors were rigorous in obtaining missing data and shed new light on well-known studies. They also suggest that coronary incidents increase when you replace SFA with omega-6 oil. A practice that is actively promoted for deep frying and may get people killed.

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An invitation-only symposium last year in Denmark, lead to a recent consensus statement  (Astrup A 2011) shedding even more doubt on the contributing role of SFA in coronary disease. Even Dr. Daniel Steinberg, a world-renowned cholesterol specialist with over 400 published articles, states in his book that he does not support the diet-heart connection.

What to Do About It…according to Taubes

The subtitle of Taubes book is ‘What to do about it’ and that seems obvious. Stay off the carbs, don’t worry about the increase of dietary fat and the obesity epidemic will soon be over.

I counsel ‘how to lose the love handles’ clients, elite athletes, and bodybuilders (two of whom happen to be national champions) so I know a thing or two about weight loss. I have been involved in various nationwide multicenter lifestyle programs for obesity, diabetes, COPD, pregnancy, kids, low back pain, and RSI.

In most cases I co-developed the programs with experts, trained the practitioners and collected the data. In a 2-year multicenter (n=80) obesity program I’ve seen the results of thousands of obesity clients. I’ve seen the effect on weight, on physical, emotional and social functioning. I’ve seen the joy, the pain, the envy, the relapses and the recoveries. I’ve collected data through SF-12 surveys, the MHI-5, diaries, HRV measurements, weight scales and other health related tools. So, I know a thing or two about obesity.

I was shocked by the McKinsey report (2011) on the ‘real’ cost of obesity, which estimates a stellar sum of 450 billion dollar annually in the US alone. I find that hard to believe, because I found the report very limited. We have no idea what causes the obesity epidemic or whether it’s even bad for your health. There is no mention of the obesity paradox, a phenomenon where obese people are healthier and live longer than their slimmer counterparts.

So what about the unnecessary costs of overtreatment of obesity? No mention of confounding variables either. Most studies are from the United States, where the income gaps are huge. We know that low income is correlated with obesity, but most studies have not corrected the relationship of social economic status (SES) on disease endpoints. This is not a minor issue, knowing that in the US around 50 million (!) people lack health insurance (during any period of time).

So do poor obese people die from fat accumulation or from insufficient, but unrelated treatment? Or do poor obese people eat more cheap calorie dense food, deep fried in so-called heart-healthy omega-6 oil, which may get them fat and killed at the same time?

We also know stress kills and obese people have a lot to stress about like negative self-image issues, ridiculing, and even discrimination. On top of that, most of them weight cycle their whole lives, adding more to the stress, while increasing inflammation, which seems to be an integral part of weight cycling.

So what is it, that makes the obese sick? Is it fat accumulation, is it excess omega-6, is it lack of health-insurance, is it a negative self-image, an increase of inflammation, discrimination and therefore the McKinsey report itself? The interventions to heal the obese may actually contribute to the sickness, the increased mortality and therefore to the cost of obesity.

Obesity is not a simple problem that can be solved by buying a book, based on some serious flawed theories. If you think you are actually helping your obese clients with a low-carb diet and high intensity interval training, you may in fact have shortened their lives by a couple of years. Working with the obese requires specific knowledge and commitment, so if your program is an overweight XXL version of the program you have for your non-obese clients, please quit and give your clients a refund!

Not Your 23 Dollar Bill

From a hypothesis point of view, I’ve seen nothing novel in Taubes vision in Why We Get Fat. fat. Anyone who has some notion on alternative nutritional views will notice the familiar concepts. And of course some of it has merit, but some of it is out of context or even downright wrong.

If you already bought the book, or were sold on the concept, don’t feel bad about it. It’s like accepting counterfeit money. Nobody will blame you for it. It’s not like you accepted a 23 dollar bill and Taubes book is not as obvious as a 23 dollar bill. It looks like real money, it feels real money. it may even smell like real money, but that doesn’t make it real.

Then there is the ethical question. If it can pass for real, because people do tend to lose weight when following a low carb diet, what would be the harm in embracing the book? The same holds true for counterfeit money. If it looks real and you can pay with it, why should you stop using it?

There are actual several reasons. First of all is that someone gets hurt further down the line, because it will come out eventually. This will reflect badly upon you, which is of course your problem. But mind that it will reflect badly on our profession as well, which concerns us all.

The second reason is that we make progress, because we have rational in-depth theories that we turn into great experiments with outcomes we learn from.  Storytelling without conclusive evidence however, has kept us in the dark ages for centuries.

Do you really want to return to medieval ages where science had no place and babies died for what we now consider trivial reasons? I don’t think so!

Conclusion

Believing is accepting without proof, which is not a bad thing by itself, if you’re open to non-supporting evidence. Taubes selective citations and inappropriate examples suggest that he is more than just a believer, he seems to be a radicalist, ridiculing anyone opposing him. Judging Taubes own blog posts and interviews, I can only conclude that his book is unreliable. It’s not all bad, but if you cannot separate the good from the bad information, it will make you unreliable.

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The many flaws in his hypothesis make it impossible to answer the question of why we get fat. The subtitle ‘and what to do about it’ offers no real solution and does not take into account the complexity of (treating) obesity. This is the reason why I did not buy this book and will not recommend it to anyone else.

References

• Astrup A (2011), Dyerberg J, Elwood P, Hermansen K, Hu FB, Jakobsen MU, Kok FJ, Krauss RM, Lecerf JM, Legrand P, Nestel P, Risérus U, Sanders T, Sinclair A, Stender S, Tholstrup T, Willett WC. The role of reducing intakes of saturated fat in the prevention of cardiovascular disease: where does the evidence stand in 2010? Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Apr;93(4):684-8. Epub 2011 Jan 26.
• Bang HO (1980), Dyerberg J, Sinclair HM. The composition of the Eskimo food in north western Greenland. Am J Clin Nutr. 1980 Dec;33(12):2657-61.
• Cohen SE (2007), Kokkotou E, Biddinger SB, Kondo T, Gebhardt R, Kratzsch J, Mantzoros CS, Kahn CR. High circulating leptin receptors with normal leptin sensitivity in liver-specific insulin receptor knock-out (LIRKO) mice. J Biol Chem. 2007 Aug 10;282(32):23672-8. Epub 2007 Jun 7.
• Grey N (1971), Kipnis DM. Effect of diet composition on the hyperinsulinemia of obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, Oct 7, 1971; 285 (15): 827-831.
• Katan MB (2010), Ludwig DS. Extra Calories Cause Weight Gain — But How Much? JAMA, January 6, 2010—Vol 303, No. 1
• Kinsell LW, et al. Calories do count. Metabolism, Mar, 1964; 13: 195-204.
• Krehl WA (1967), et al. Some Metabolic Changes Induced by Low Carbohydrate Diets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Feb, 1967; 20: 139-148
• Lindeberg S (1994), Nilsson-Ehle P, Terént A, Vessby B, Scherstén B. Cardiovascular risk factors in a Melanesian population apparently free from stroke and ischaemic heart disease: the Kitava study. J Intern Med. 1994 Sep;236(3):331-40.
• McKinsey Quarterly (2011) The real cost of obesity, January 2011
• Michael MD (2000), Kulkarni RN, Postic C, Previs SF, Shulman GI, Magnuson MA, Kahn CR. Loss of insulin signaling in hepatocytes leads to severe insulin resistance and progressive hepatic dysfunction. Mol Cell. 2000 Jul;6(1):87-97.
• Mozaffarian D (2010), Micha R, Wallace S. Effects on coronary heart disease of increasing polyunsaturated fat in place of saturated fat: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS Med. 2010 Mar 23;7(3):e1000252.
• Ramsden CE (2010), Hibbelna JR, Majchrzaka SF, Davisa JM. N-6 Fatty acid-specific and mixed polyunsaturate dietary interventions have different effects on CHD risk: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. British Journal of Nutrition (2010), 104: 1586-1600
• Taubes G Blog post 1 to 4 on www.garytaubes.com

Chi L. Chiu has a master’s degree in nutrition, one in health sciences and is currently a grad student psychology. He is the owner of Chivo personal training, Chivo physical therapy, Chivo sports performance and Chivo Continuous Professional Development center for lifestyle professionals. He is a member on various government en non-government funded advisory boards and works with clients on a daily basis.

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PS: Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.  Agree?  Disagree?

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PPS: No…he doesn’t have a blog.  I’m trying to push him into it…trust me.

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Regular readers of this blog will know that I am VERY discriminating with where I get my fitness information from to the point where I’ve been called contrarian by many others for questioning popular theories and methods.

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Frankly, I don’t do this as a publicity stunt and I like to think I take a balanced approach to studying and presenting every topic.  As such, I’d like to think that people would trust my opinion on things I review here and know that I’ll never recommend anything just to make a quick buck.

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For this reason I hope you’ll take my recommendation of Mike Robertson’s new Bulletproof Knees and Back Seminar product very seriously.  Honestly, I have yet to review the product (it is on its way), but I can say without a doubt that I am positive it is going to be outstanding.  I think I currently own every product Mike has ever produced and his work has never been a disappointment. 

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More to the point, Mike is a stand up guy who is constantly in the trenches training clients and refining his methods in one of America’s top facilities.  And despite this, he never hesitates to take a second to answer emails and help out those who need it.

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In fact, when Mike asked me if I’d put together a bonus for his product I jumped at the chance to help him out.  I’m not making a cent for promoting this product and I didn’t bat an eye at the thought of putting together a bonus for his product (completely for free) because I know that it is going to be solid and something I can be proud to support.

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If you are a fitness professional and are dealing with clients who have knee or back pain (that is pretty much all of us) I have no hesitation in recommending you check out The Bulletproof Knees and Back Seminar.

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It is on sale until Friday and after that the price will jump by 50 bucks so if you’re keen to be the “go to” trainer for dealing with knee and back pain then I’d highly suggest you take advantage of this sale today

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The Bulletproof Knees and Back Seminar <— Get it Now!

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During my series on physique assessment last week I mentioned that one of the key elements of creating a vastly more aesthetically appealing body is to get your waist as close as possible to an ideal size (which I defined as approximately 45% of your height).

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I later received an email asking if I believed it was possible to preferentially target abdominal fat as was mentioned in THIS ARTICLE.

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Truth be told, I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Lowery and generally appreciate his articles so this is not an intended slam on him personally or T-Nation for posting the article.  However, I’m just not convinced at this point that the main study supporting his article was strong enough to suggest that this is really an effective strategy.

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Let’s Take a Look

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Are blood flow and lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue influenced by contractions in adjacent muscles in humans?

Stallknecht B, Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Feb;292(2):E394-9. Epub 2006 Sep 19

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Background

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There is evidence that exercise induced fat loss is higher in visceral fat (around the organs) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (fat below the skin) in the abdominal region than in the femoral (thigh) region.  This suggests that regional fat tissue is regulated independently and that spot reduction may be possible.

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*Note that the aforementioned belief belongs to the authors not me*

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Numerous studies have examined spot reduction with conflicting results.

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Purpose

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To determine if spot lipolysis (local fat breakdown) in subcutaneous fat occurs to a greater degree overlying contracting muscle than resting muscle.

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Methods

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10 male subjects performed one legged knee extension ergometer for 30 minutes at 25% of their maximum work capacity.  They then switched legs and performed 120 minutes at 55% of their max work capacity.  Finally, they switched back to the first leg and performed another 30 minutes of exercise at 85% of their max work capacity.

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During this time they had microdialysis catheters inserted in the adipose tissue of each thigh to measure blood flow and fat breakdown.

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Results

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In general, exercise increased adipose tissue blood flow in both the working and resting leg.  However, in the 25% and 55% work capacity conditions, the blood flow to the adipose tissue closest to the working muscle was higher than the resting leg.

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Subcutaneous adipose tissue lipolysis (fat breakdown below the skin) was greater for working leg in the 25% and 85% capacity groups, but not in the 55% capacity group.  In other words, the fat breakdwn for both the exercising leg and the resting leg was the same in the group working at 55% of their work capacity.

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My Thoughts

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One major point that I want to highlight is that Dr. Lowery correctly pointed out that exercise does increase body temperature and temperature does increase adipose tissue blood flow.  However, based on this study, I’m not sure the blood flow and lipolysis are even directly releated..

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In the 25 and 55% conditions blood flow was higher for the exercising leg, but adipose tissue lipolysis was greater in the exercising leg in only the 25 and 85% conditions.  In other words, the conditions that caused the greatest increases in blood flow didn’t match the conditions with the greatest amount of breakdown. 

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As a result, I tend to believe temperature and blood flow may not be the primary mediators of local fat breakdown.  So even IF local fat breakdown can be effected, taking measures to increase local temperature and blood flow probably aren’t going to help.

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And, as the authors of the study astutely pointed out, any broken down fat stores may be replaced or even supercompensated (more fat stored there) when exercise is complete.  This is certainly a possible scenario and highlights the importance of not using acute variables (like lipolysis) as anything more than hypothesis generating tools for the possibility of chronic changes (like local fat loss).

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But most importantly, even if the fat wasn’t replaced in that area, the maximum calculation for the amount of fat lost in the area at the end of 30 minutes of 25% or 85% exercise is 2.1 milligrams of triglyerceride per 100 grams of fat in that area.  Doing some rough calculations in my head I think this would amount to NOT VERY DAMN MUCH!!!

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As I’ve blogged before, I just don’t think the evidence for spot reduction is strong enough to warrant any of the methods suggested to achieve it.  And even if it was statisticaly significant, will it be visually relevant?  Would you really notice these effects in the mirror?  Two milligrams per 100 grams of fat doesn’t seem like it is worth pursuing to me.

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What do you think?

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If you’d like to review studies like this for yourself, check out my product How to Read Fitness Research.