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What good is a Monday morning without zombies right?

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Last Friday the group Sumo Cyco released a totally SICK music video.  The group features Sever (the alter ego of musician Skye Sweetnam), but more importantly I’m totally stoked because my brother in law Brad got to play the blood sucking, brain eating, zombie in the video and his girlfriend Sara did all of the supremely gory makeup…which makes the video totally awesome.  If you missed your coffee this morning, this video will definitely wake you up.  I’m really digging the tune and thinking this one might be a solid addition to the playlist for leg day this week too! 

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*Warning – Video may not (read: is definitely not) suitable for work*

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Okay…now to get down to business.

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Recently I had two people ask me questions regarding things they should be eating to lose fat faster.  The first was a male friend who mentioned that someone had told him he should start eating coconut oil to accelerate his metabolism.  The second was a female friend who had heard from some of her friends that if you eat a certain amount of cinnamon per day (mixed in yogurt of some kinda) that this would help her to lose fat faster.  In fact, some of her friends stated that they were doing this and that it was actually working.

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So what do I think?

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The very real truth is that there ARE some compounds that have a thermogenic effect and result in a (slightly)  increased metabolic rate.  However, the second someone asks what they should be eating to make weight/fat loss go faster I tend to think they’ve been terribly misguided.  In my experience, weight loss isn’t about consuming MORE of anything.  In fact, for most people the real magic is created simply by consuming less.

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In short, I tend to answer questions like this with questions of my own.  In these cases I simply asked “Do you think that if you maintained your current level of activity and calorie intake that adding this ingredient would make a visual difference in how you look”?

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I don’t know whether either person actually took that to mean what it was meant to mean, but the key here is to understand that IF there was a magic ingredient that made for a truly visually noticible change in appearance without any change in diet or exercise it would probably be VERY expensive and you wouldn’t be able to buy it in the store for $10 or less.

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But what about the people who were doing the cinnamon thing and getting results?

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Again…if the scale was changing I’m guessing that this would be more related to subconscious changes in intake or exercise as a result of the act of monitoring weight in the first place.  And, of course, there is the placebo effect that I mentioned here as well.  But most certainly, the main point you should take from this is that there is NO MAGIC.  There are NO SECRETS.  Real and permanent weight loss will always be the result of serious dietary or activity changes (usually both).

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PS: If you haven’t already, don’t forget to find me on Facebook and Twitter.

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PPS: Seats are going quickly for my speaking engagement in June.  If you don’t want to miss it click HERE to find out more.

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The other day I wrote a post in which I included a video talking about the science of willpower (self regulation). If you missed it, you can check it out HERE.
 

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In any case, the main take home points were:
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- When it comes to willpower, we only had a limited amount to expend within any given day and it doesn’t seem to be specific to any specific task. In other words, when you use restraint to not dropkick the complete jackass who just went head of you in the express checkout with more than 8 items you use up some of the willpower you might’ve needed that night to make it to the gym or prevent yourself from eating an entire bag of Doritos when your team loses in the hockey playoffs.
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- Some people are particularly more succeptable to using up their willpower than others.
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- We can train our willpower to get stronger just like we train our muscles with resistance training. Using restraint and practicing self discipline in the short term (i.e., really grinding it out when you don’t feel like sticking to your plan) will help you build up greater willpower in the long term.
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- Planning exercise bouts in advance takes away from the need to use willpower to show up for workouts as they are already planned.
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My Thoughts
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After watching the video I had a few other thoughts too…
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- If using our willpower helps to strengthen it, does not using it cause it to become weaker? This would certainly make sense and it would explain why it is so hard to get back on track after a lengthy layoff.
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- If this is true, does not using restraint and frequently checking Facebook, Twitter, email, and text messages mean we’re weakening our willpower in the long term?  If so, I’m dead. 
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- If willpower becomes depleted over the course of a day, does it make sense to train or prep meals in the morning for those who have a history of blowing off late day training sessions or meals.
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Action Points
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I guess we don’t have the answers to the questions above, but they are certainly worth considering. Knowing what do do know though…I think we can confidently take some specific actions.
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- Plan the days and times you’re going to train in advance. Truth be told, I’m not into programs that are set in stone and I’m all for adusting difficulty based on how you’re feeling, mood, etc. But when you’re set to train…you should train.
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- Along the same lines, I don’t think it matters whether you eat 1, 3, or 6 meals per day, but I think you need to have a plan regardless…especially in the beginning…even if it is just changing one small habit at a time.  Plan it.
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- When just starting to exercise or improve your nutrition (or coming back after a layoff) you have to fake it till you make it. You’ll have to grind it out…but it will get easier.
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Research shows you can bank on that!

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If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know that I think long term weight/fat loss has less to do with physiology and more to do with psychology.  Now don’t get me wrong, you have to eat the right foods and do the appropriate exercise.  That is a given.  But I think all the arguments on the internet about the amount of carbs we should eat, the type of exercise we should be doing, and the magical supplements we should be taking are all secondard to having the appropriate psychological environment for weight loss.  After all, a plan you don’t follow is only as good as the paper it is written on. 

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If you think back to the number of times that you or someone you know has failed at achieving their dream body, has it been because they didn’t know what they should and should not be eating?  Has it been because they didn’t know that they should exercise regularly?  Or has it been that even when a plan was going well, they were unable to make it stick or to follow through on the commitment in the long term?

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I would say that the latter is definitely more common.  But before I get hate mail about this I want to touch on two very important points. 

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1 - There are some people who are limited by other metabolic issues like food intolerances and so on.  I can acknowledge this and I HAVE seen in…but it is unlikely and this probably does not apply to you.  And even if it does, you still need to get a solid exercise and nutrition program in place before you start to address these details.    Without such a plan, you’ll never be able to lose weight regardless of whether or not you’ve addressed these issues.

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2 – Not sticking to the plan may have something to do with willpower, but you are not necessarily to blame for this problem.  In fact, it frustrates me when fitness professionals belittle and blame their clients for something that may not be as much in their control as we’d like to believe.

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Fortunately, today I’ve got a really great explanation for WHY our willpower fails and a couple methods to improve our ability to self regulate our behaviours so we CAN stick to our diet and exercise program and get the results we deserve. 

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Check out this video by my friend and colleague, Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginnis on willpower, planning, and exercise adherance.  I think many of you will be able to relate. 
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Does this make sense?  What do you think? Could we not use this to improve exercise AND diet?

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I figured I’d start out today with a quote from Dr. Arya Sharma’s because I think everyone trying to lose weight or help others lose weight should be reading his blog.

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“Public health discussion on preventing obesity that focus on eating less and moving more may do little more than perpetuate the already widespread stereotype that people, who are obese, carry that excess weight simply because they eat too much and don’t exercise enough.

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This is not a ‘healthy’ public discussion to have – as it calls on governments to intensify the ‘blame and shame’ game (adding a punitive touch when it comes to taxing and banning) rather than addressing the real underlying problems, which is that as a society we no longer have time to eat, have jobs that force us into sedentariness, make unhealthy food cheaper than healthy options, build cities that discourage active transportation, and create a latch-key generation of kids that cannot come home to a simple home-cooked meal eaten by the whole family seated at the table (with the television off).”

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I can’t even tell you how much I agree with that a statement.  If you are a fitness professional yourself, you need to think about how this statement relates to your practice and even your thoughts about weight management.

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And speaking about thoughts on weight management (see how I did that little seque there?) my question for all my readers who are fitness professionals is CAN WE HELP PEOPLE THAT WE ARE BIASED AGAINST?

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Despite trying to help people, many of us our equally as guilty of biases against people obesity as the general public (and even obese people themselves).  Today I thought it would be interesting to share a little resource I’ve discovered from the Yale Rudd Center to help you determine how weight bias is impacting YOUR beliefs. 

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You can check it out HERE.

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Simply fill out the ATOP (Attitudes Toward Obese Persons) and BAOP (Beliefs About Obese Persons) questionnaires and use the scoring sheets on the site to see how you did.  If you’ve got time, you can even do some of the other tests on the site.

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I think you might be surprised to find out what your real perceptions are.  I certainly was when I did these tests over two years ago and it changed my entire philosophy towards dealing with obese people for weight loss.  In short, I think helping people with weight loss first starts with the perceptions of those in a position to help.  If you think it is all their fault and are playing the blame game like everyone else, do you think they’re really going to listen?

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Take the tests and let me know how you make out in the comments below.

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Recently there has been a lot of buzz in the fitness industry about a new study showing that 45 minutes on vigorous activity boosts post exercise calorie burning by 190 calories.  Frankly, I think the study was done VERY well, but I think people are taking it to mean more than it does.  I figured I’d do a quick review to share a few of my thoughts.

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In short, the researchers took 10 subjects had each one spend 24 hours in a metabolic chamber on two separate occaisions.

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For the uninitiated, a metabolic chamber is an 8 x 10 foot room with a 7 foot ceiling that is completely sealed for the period in which the subject is studied.  (In other words, if you don’t like enclosed spaces you’d probably freak right the hell out)

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On one occaision the subjects did no physical activity within the chamber other than what was necessary for daily living (washing, brushing teeth, etc).  The rest of the time was spent sitting and no additional activity was permitted.

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On another occaision, the same methods were followed except that subjects performed 45 minutes of exercise at a “vigorous” intensity (75% VO2 max – actually VO2 peak, but that’s just being picky). 

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On both occaisions subjects received meals that were designed to keep them in calorie balance so on the exercise day subjects were fed more food to account for the calories expended from activity.

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The results of this very strictly controlled study showed that when the subjects exercised they burned 514 calories from the exercise bout itself and an additional 190 calories in the post exercise period.

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So what does this study actually tell us?

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This study shows that you’ll burn 190 extra calories after doing vigorous exercise than you would if you did absolutely nothing!

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Mind-friggin’-blowing isn’t it?!?

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I think the researchers did a very good job at answering the question they asked, but I’m not sure the the research is of much relevance to non-researchers (i.e., people who want to lose fat).  I don’t think there is really anything new here.

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Previous research has demonstrated that intensity and duration can both contribute to the post exercise calorie expenditure so this research just reinforces this fact. 

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.And more importantly, does it really matter?

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To illustrate the effects of such a protocol in the real world a training study would have to be conducted to show that fat loss would result as a chronic effect of this protocol.

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But again…you’d be looking at doing nothing versus doing something so I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be surprised to see that the exercise group might come out on top.

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In summary, exercise versus not exercising DOES result in increased calorie expenditure.  You might even hypothesize (probably correctly) that this would result in greater weight loss over time. 

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Would there be a difference between two exercise intensities if done for the same time with both groups already in a calorie deficit and free living conditions (i.e., not being told to sit down all day in a box)?

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I don’t know the answer to that.  But I’m not holding my breath since exercise really doesn’t tend to result in more weight loss in trials where diet changes are already in place.

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In the end, this study does show we burn more calories when we exercise which is good (not surprising).  But it doesn’t really tell us much more than that.

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Knab AM, Shanely RA, Corbin K, Jin F, Sha W, Nieman DC. A 45-Minute Vigorous Exercise Bout Increases Metabolic Rate for 14 Hours. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Feb 8. [Epub ahead of print]

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Side Note - I found it interesting that this study actually had two references from Eric Poehlman whose career has come crashing down after admitting to falsifying data in grant applications and several studies.

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

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