Eric Cressey gets angry with bad research and its effect on the public’s perception of how they should diet and exercise.

They claim that the results show that low-fat, higher carb diets outperform low-carb, higher fat diets when both diets are low in fat and total calories. In other words, the implication is that they are calorically equal – when in fact, the higher carb group received 155 calories more per day (14.3% higher caloric intake). Over the course of the four month study, the low-carb group averaged five pounds more (28 vs. 23) in body weight reductions. At eight months, however, they had regained 18 pounds while the low-fat, higher-carb group had continued to lose weight. It must be the carbs, right? Wrong!

Go get ‘em!

Alwyn Cosgrove has a post on Abundance vs. Scarcity in the personal training market. He sets up the idea that some people have a mindset of abundance, and others of scarcity. Meaning, those with the abundance mindset think the world is full of plenty of opportunity for everyone whereas those with the scarcity mindset believe there is a limited amount, and to do well means (by necessity) that someone else must fail.

I call it going “Deep Sea Fishing for Water”. This can be a little deep (no pun intended) so bear with me….

It’s as if we chartered a boat and went out to sea, with the goal of collecting as much water as we could. When we get there – I start using a bucket to collect my water. You start using a tea cup.

Now ask yourself this — are you angry that I used a bucket? Do you feel as if I’m taking more than my “fair share” ?

In the personal training and fitness coaching market, there really is an abundance of potential clients. I’m never worried about helping out a fellow trainer for fear of them “stealing” my clients. That’s ridiculous. The United States has a population that is about 30% obese and growing (pun fully intended). Every year we graduate a larger number of high school students who have never had a serious PE class, who couldn’t run a mile to save their lives (literally, if a bear was chasing them, they’d be food).

Here’s the reality. If you’re a man, without any serious physical ailments, and under 70, you should be able to do at least 10 pull ups. You should be able to run a mile in less than 9 minutes (I’m being lax here). You should be able to do 100 crunches in a row, no problem; 50 push ups straight; and squat about bodyweight. I’m not joking. Any male of the species, if truly in shape, should be able to do these things. The amount of testosterone flowing in the male body is ridiculous compared to what women have. Men are quite literally on steroids. There is no excuse. These numbers are low. There are old old old men at Loprinzi’s that can do better than this.

All it takes is some work. And the pay off is huge.

For women there are similar standards. At least: 8 full push ups or 20 knee push ups; run a mile in less than 10 minutes; do 8 pull ups with 75% bodyweight (with 100% bodyweight if you have a small hip structure); Squat 75% bodyweight; 100 crunches, no problem. These could all be higher depending on bone structure.

For certain athletes these numbers would be different. Female Olympic lifters sometimes have a hard time doing pull ups because of the shear muscular weight they carry in their hips and legs. But, then they make up for that by clean and jerking their bodyweight (see below).

If you can’t do those things, I can help you. For that matter, a whole host of trainers could help you get better than you are now, even the crappy ones. All they have to do is encourage you to workout regularly. Most Americans don’t, therefor, it’s an open market. How many people do you know who can boast the aforementioned numbers? Can you?

This is Melanie Roach clean and jerking a ton of weight:

Precision Nutrition has a new interview with Dr. John Berrardi. He goes over all kinds of interesting stuff like:  how he deals with athletes who need more calories; how he got Dave Tate to look so … well … not fat; and what he likes to parade around in early in the morning.

Everyone is always on the lookout for the Ultimate Diet Secret.  What can I do to lose fat FAST?!  I need to know NOW!  Please HELP me!

As a fitness and athletic coach I hear this all the time.  I hear it more than just about anything else (at least from women, men generally are more interested in muscle gain).   In fact I’ve been hearing that now for nearly 12 years!  But, let me tell you, there are precious few people who have actually done anything with the secret diet knowledge once I lay it out for them.

Yes.  There IS a secret.  The problem is that you already know it.  Since I couldn’t say it better, I’ll just quote Chad Waterbury:

If I told you to consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight, fibrous vegetables, water, green tea, 12 grams of fish oil, and spread those out over the course of six meals each day you’d be anything but impressed. But if I held you in captivity and forced you to do that every day for a month, you’d be blown away by the results. The nutritional methods to lose fat have already been found. The challenge we coaches face is figuring out how we’re going to get you to adhere to the guidelines.

What’s the take-home message?  Stick to the plan.  Losing fat, gaining muscle, and other forms of body composition change require the one thing most of us refuse to put in:  Consistency.  It’s often boring, but the boredom will pay dividends.

Keith Scott goes into the history, and provides criticism of unstable training (eg. boshu balls).

If you are trying to increase your strength, unstable training not only is a waste of time, but can actually be a detriment to your gains. You cannot possibly get stronger when you are squatting on a Bosu ball. You feet need a solid, stable surface to be able to increase loads progressively that will cause strength increases. Training on an unstable surface will not allow you to do this and will even make your weaker in the long run. Besides lack of strength increases and getting weaker, it also sets you up for injury. I have rehabbed many injuries that were caused by unstable training accidents.

Amen, brother.  He rightly mentions that it has its place in rehab settings, but it should be kept out of an athletes general program.  Remember that if you find yourself hiring a trainer at a big-box gym and he asks you to do overhead-lunges on a medicine-ball covered in oil.

There are a rising number of Vegetarian Athletes competing today.  I have coached a number of them myself.   The Olympic Coach magazine attempts to  deal with the pro’s and con’s and what a coach can do to maximize an athletes performance in light of their dietary choices.

Optimal performance comes with good health. Athletes who follow any type of vegetarian eating program seem to have a lower risk of developing diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in later years of life. Unfortunately, much of the scientific research is focused on health effects of vegetarianism and not specifically on performance. However, it is easy to infer that vegetarian eating plans could lead to increased performance since carbohydrates are plentiful and carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy during moderate to high intensity training.

Of course, many athletes who develop diabetes and other diseases later in life after their competitive days are over are likely becoming so unhealthy because they’ve stopped training all together.  It is rediculously common for competitive athletes to cease ALL training of any kind once they’ve ended their careers.  If athletes continued training (at a more moderate level than they did when they were competing) they would also be far less likely to develop these diseases.

The bottom line is that being a vegetarian is not going to hurt ones athletic performance.  But, it can make it harder to get adequate protein.  No athlete (particularly no strength athletes) can get away with a low protein diet.  Here are some meat (and milk) substitutes recomended in the article (albeit some are better than others):

• Soy milk
• Tofu
• Edamame
• Quinoa (a grain that is relatively in protein)
• Walnuts, almonds
• Kidney and black beans
• Tempeh
• Hummus
• Peanut, soynut or almond butter

Eat up, athletes.  Your performance depends on it.

Not really.  A new study showed that patients who got stomach reduction surgery were 5 times more likely to see their diabetes go away after 2 years than those who went through traditional approaches.

Yep, no longer being fat drastically reduces your diabetes.  That doesn’t mean that you have to have surgery to lose the fat!  Surgery isn’t a quick fix, it’s a serious procedure that can come with a whole host of complications.  Get real!

Here’s a secret, a really secret secret, to losing the same amount of weight … wait for it … wait … eat less, move more.  Wow.  A miracle cure.

Until America comes to grips with it’s fat problem, diabetes will only continue to rise, along with heart disease and other preventable illnesses.  You don’t need a doctor to prevent much of these, you just need take control of your life.  It’s your life, and only you can take charge of it.

From the NYT:

This new tool measures what the researchers call “cognitive vital signs” like short-term memory loss, which is the most important early sign of Alzheimer’s, and detects declines in everyday abilities like using a telephone, preparing meals or managing finances. The quiz also picks up behavioral warning signs including apathy, irritability and depression.

“If somebody is failing these cognitive tests, they already have the characteristics of the disease,” says Jeffrey Cummings, director of the Alzheimer Disease Center at U.C.L.A., “just in a very early and mild form.” Cummings says the quiz reliably shows when a person crosses the line between normal mental life and the mild cognitive impairment found in early Alzheimer’s, but adds that anyone who fails should get a detailed follow-up exam.

BioMed Central, an independent publishing house that provides open access to peer-reviewed health science research, has just started a YouTube Channel.

I stole this from an Article in Olympic Coach Magazine (the same one I referenced below)

I quote it in full:

Turkey Chili
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 Tbs Olive oil
16 oz Ground turkey (93% lean)
2 Tbs Garlic, minced
1 cup Diced onion
1 cup Diced bell pepper
1-12 oz Dark Beer or Broth
2-14oz cans Diced Tomatoes
1 can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Celery Soup
1 can Low Sodium Black Beans
2 cups Frozen, shelled edamame
MRS DASH Southwest Chipotle Spice to taste

Preparation:

1. In a large sauce pan, sauté ground turkey in olive oil until brown. Add MRS DASH spice blend and garlic and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add onions and peppers and cook until onions are soft (approx 5 min).
3. Add dark beer or broth and simmer until 75% reduced.
4. Add canned tomatoes, beans, and cream of celery soup. Stir well, cover, and simmer over low heat for 30-45 minutes.
5. Add frozen edamame, cover, and simmer an additional 10 minutes.
6. Feel free to spice it up at this point with your favorite hot sauce.

**Get creative and add more of your favorite vegetables like frozen corn, zucchini, mushrooms, and even jalapenos!

Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 420; Total fat: 16g Saturated fat: 4g; Protein: 29g; Carbohydrates: 36g; Fiber: 9g; Sodium: 570mg

Kitchen Tips:

1. Ground turkey may have the same total fat as ground meat; but it is lower in saturated fat than lean ground beef!!!
2. MRS DASH spice blends are a great way to season food without increasing the sodium. The blends are perfectly balanced and much more affordable than buying individual spices and blending them yourself!!!

Created by: Adam Korzun, MS, RD, LDN

Avocado Rice
Serves 6

Ingredients:
4 servings Instant Brown Rice
½ tsp Ground cumin
2 Tbs Scallions, chopped
1 ea Avocado, diced

Preparation:

1. Follow the package instructions for 4 servings of rice.
2. Cook according to package details.
3. When cooked, add in cumin, scallions and diced avocado.
4. Stir until well incorporated.

Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 165; Total fat: 5g Saturated fat: 1g; Protein: 3g; Carbohydrates: 27g; Fiber: 3g; Sodium: 50mg

Kitchen Tips:

1. Brown rice has only its husk removed during milling, so it is richer in fiber, trace minerals, and those important B vitamins than more processed white rice.
2. Instant Brown Rice has all of the benefits of traditional brown rice, but it cooks in one third of the time!

Created by: Adam Korzun, MS, RD, LDN