Why Diets Don't Work

Randys Pics

I have been meaning to post Randy's Pics for quite some time... Here they are! Great Job!
To see more pictures click HERE!

New Study Suggests Women Need An Hour Of Exercise A Day...

Ladies, if you're not planning on changing the way you eat, get ready for your daily hour-long workouts... To read more click HERE!

Great Job Liz

Great Job on your program Liz... To see more pictures click HERE!

Another Successfull Client!

Rachel just finished her program with Mike... Click here to see more pictures!

Benefits of Fiber

We all know the benefits of fiber. Fiber not only promotes health, it also help reduce the risk for some chronic diseases. For instance, fiber prevents constipation, hemorrhoids and diverticulosis. Fiber is also linked to prevent some cancers especially colon and breast cancer. In addition, fiber may help lower the LDL cholesterol (the Bad cholesterol) and the total cholesterol therefore reducing the risk of heart disease. Furthermore, fiber can help lower blood sugar therefore help better manage diabetes.
Types of Fiber: Soluble Fiber and Insoluble Fiber

Both soluble and insoluble fiber are undigested. They are therefore not absorbed into the bloodstream. Instead of being used for energy, fiber is excreted from our bodies. Soluble fiber forms a gel when mixed with liquid, while insoluble fiber does not. Insoluble fiber passes through our intestines largely intact.

Insoluble Fiber

Functions of Insoluble Fiber

- move bulk through the intestines
- control and balance the pH (acidity) in the intestines

Benefits of Insoluble Fiber


- promote regular bowel movement and prevent constipation
- remove toxic waste through colon in less time
- help prevent colon cancer by keeping an optimal pH in intestines to prevent microbes from producing cancerous substances

Food Sources of Insoluble Fiber

- Vegetables such as green beans and dark green leafy vegetables
- Fruit skins and root vegetable skins
- Whole-wheat products
- Wheat oat
- Corn bran
- Seeds & Nuts



Soluble Fiber

Functions of Soluble Fiber

- bind with fatty acids
- prolong stomach emptying time so that sugar is released and absorbed more slowly

Benefits of Soluble Fiber


- lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the Bad cholesterol) therefore reducing the risk of heart disease
- regulate blood sugar for people with diabetes

Food Sources of Soluble Fiber

- Oat/Oat bran
- Dried beans and peas
- Nuts
- Barley
- Flax seed
- Fruits such as oranges and apples
- Vegetables such as carrots
- Psyllium husk

Should I stop lifting heavy when my goal is to burn fat?

Two things happen when you lift heavier - you burn more calories and you burn more calories longer after the lift. In other words, lifting 200 pounds 5 times will burn more calories than lifting 100 pounds 10 times, even though the workload is the same. This is because of the way your anaerobic system is taxed, changes to your heart rate, the way the body accumulates what is known as "oxygen debt" and how the body pays off that debt using EPOC (exercise post-oxygen consumption).

So if your goal is to burn more calories, a super-circuit at a quicker pace will actually burn less calories. Lifting hard and heavy will burn the most calories during the lift and keep your metabolism elevated the longest.

What Exactly Is Cardio?

Cardio is really a modern term that has grown to replace aerobic exercise. To avoid the stigma of the aerobic craze of the 70s people switched to cardio when discussing it relative to fitness and strength-training programs to disassociate with the aerobics-only phenomenon.

Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise which means really any exercise that benefits the heart. This used to be mainly aerobic training but now research suggests that weight lifting also benefits the heart - this is an example of a phrase that became popular before science could really validate it.

Aerobic exercise is any sustainable activity that utilizes oxygen (ergo the burning of fat) for a primary source of fuel. Weight lifting that is intense and in short duration will primarily use stored glycogen and the ATP-CP pathway (intramuscular energetics with creatine phosphate that - adenosine triphosphate or ATP is broken to adenosine diphosphate and this releases energy. To rebuild ADP to ATP, the CP is split, lending the extra phosphate moelcule needed for ADP to become ATP and thereby fuel another reaction).

Now, this definition is muddied because you can have weight training i.e. longer sets that actually use oxygen and are therefore more aerobic (take circuit training, for example, when people aren't using a heavy load). You can also have what is traditionally thought of as cardio i.e. sprints that can be anaerobic depending on the rest. If the heart rate is allowed to lower between the intervals followed by maximum output then you are more in the anaerobic/glycolytic range. If you are only doing intervals but the heart does not drop substantially then you are going to be in more of a cardio range.

Basically, and this is a nutshell, oversimplifying because I've already gotten quite technical, there are primarily three systems that fuel energy. ALL energy systems are used to some extent, but various activity will use more of one or the other.

Anything lasting just a few seconds is going to be primarily anaerobic and use the ATP-CP system. This includes weight lifting, where the reps last a few seconds and are maximal bouts of output. Active rest occurs between the repetitions and then actual rest occurs between the sets. Shot-put, 50 yard-dash, weight lifting, olympic lifting, power-lifting are all examples of this.

Anything lasting a few minutes is primarily the glycolytic system where lactic acid is utilized to generate energy. This would be prolonged bouts such as sprints, longer weight lifting sets, etc. Basketball (run down court, then stay at the court = submaximal bout followed by active rest), and Soccer are examples of this.

Anything beyond that first few minutes must utilize oxygen turnover and therefore you are in the aerobic zone. This would be longer runs, rowing, hiking, etc.

Now, keep in mind there is no black and white with this - you still cross over into multiple systems. The reason why HIIT is more cardio than, say, a 20 minute weight training session, is that in HIIT on the slower intervals you are still performing work. Your heart rate drops somewhat but doesn't drop a lot and therefore is still elevated in its output - this means that oxygen must fuel the process. On the other hand, in typical weight training, you are resting between sets which allows adequate recovery for the heart rate to slow while the muscle energetics replenish themselves.
A long weight training session with short rest and a lot of supersets is going to be aerobic at the same time as being anaerobic during the sets - you are anaerobic to explosively move the weight but because you are not allowing your heart rate to drop significantly between bouts of work the entire workout becomes more aerboic. Dave Draper was a huge advocate of this method of training and felt you could build muscle and stay lean or even burn fat simultaneously by supersetting a lot. Looking at his physique I don't doubt there is some validity there.

Hope that helps - if you really want to dig into the details just search on ATP-CP or muscular energetics and you can get some good primers. Of course, then you might be forced to look into the Krebs Cycle and other pathways of metabolism and discover just why it is a gross oversimplification for people to say "this exercise burns muscle" or "if you exercise on an empty stomach your body is forced to burn fat"