Exercise as an appetizer for breakfast

I read last week in the NYTimes about a recent study in the Journal of Physiology did an interesting experiment involving athletes and timing of exercise compared to when they ate breakfast. During the experiment they fed three groups of athletes a diet with an excess of calories which means that each group was expected to gain weight.

The first group did no exercise for the six weeks of the experiment and ate 30% more calories than would be appropriate for their need. In the end they gained an average of 6+ pounds (big surprise, huh?). Moreover, they saw in just those six weeks a decrease in insulin sensitivity, which is considered main causal problem in Type 2 diabetes.

The second group ate their excess calories in carbohydrate and ate carbs during exercise. Not terribly dissimilar from what a normal athlete would do other than eating excess calories. The results for this group were kind of boring. They gained a little weight because of the excess calories, but the rest of the findings were just kind of blah.

The third group, though, that exercise before breakfast and didn't eat anything during exercise was really interesting. They found that this group not only didn't gain a significant amount of weight, but the group also had increased insulin sensitivity and increased fatty acid oxidation (they used fat better for fuel). Their conclusion was somewhat novel (and a little cocky): "This study for the first time shows that fasted training is more potent than fed training to facilitate adaptations in muscle and to improve whole-body glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity during hyper-caloric fat-rich diet."

Really it is a pretty cool thing to find out. Lots of athletes know that when they need to drop a little weight, they do a little extra exercise in the morning before breakfast. Bradley Wiggins for instance talked about this being a normal thing for him when he's getting ready to drop a pound or two in preparation for a big race. This study had subjects doing 60-90 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise which is no small thing. However, the results are also no small thing. If they really hold true, this could be a nice prophylaxis for the holiday season when we are all a little prone to eating more than normal.

One caveat, don't expect your all time greatest results when you exercise before eating or without eating. You can only last so long without fuel and this method essentially has you running on E. If you decide to try it, start easier and work up to your limit instead of just blowing up on your first try.

Swiss Ball Stunts

Apparently there is this whole world of swiss ball stunts...and even acrobatics.

Needless to say, given my level of amateurity, I'm not quite there yet.

Swiss Ball: Not even remotely related to Swiss Cake Rolls.

It's still cross training season.

Which means I'm looking for ways to build some strength, maintain at least a minimal amount of aerobic fitness and try not to cry when I think about how long it could be before I get back on the open road with my bike.

One special area of interest during this time of year is core strength. My new secret weapon, the Swiss Ball (aka Fitball, exercise ball etc.). Please see below:

Core strength is especially important for a guy like me who spends long hours on a bike saddle or long hours hunched over study materials because it creates a platform for power when I'm bike riding and helps prevent back pain when I'm just sitting. I once heard the best way to eliminate low back pain is to eliminate your lower front. Now good posture, appropriate shoes and an expensive desk chair don't hurt; but when you're looking for the most bang for your buck you can't beat increased core fitness.

The Swiss exercise ball is one trick that I'm sure I can count on. Not only because of the good shape that regular ball users get into with these exercises but also because these exercises are difficult. Really difficult. If you don't believe me, try it. What have you got to lose? (besides maybe your lower front...)

For more face-breakingly difficult exercises check out these killer core exercises.

BMI is a baseline measure, but also a helpful one

Lots of people put tons of emphasis on BMI. It's a good baseline test for figuring out what kind of shape your body is in. The US Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes for Health (NIH) have composed guidelines for healthy BMI and are what physicians use in the initial assessment of whether or not a person is underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obese. BMI is somewhat limited in that it does not take into account a person's body composition, but the majority of the population (not elite athletes) this isn't too big of a problem. When you consider athletes BMI hits a little bit of a wall because athletes tend to have less body fat which means more of their weight is from muscle. This does not mean that BMI is invaluable, it simply needs to be used carefully. For this reason I have often given BMI less credence than perhaps it deserves.

The NIH recently released information regarding a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on BMI and it's predictive power concerning longevity. It turns out that your BMI is a little bit bigger deal than I have thought in the past. The study pooled 19 other investigations that examined BMI and the probability of mortality (dying). This study actually allowed them to look at data concerning 1.5 million people which is 0.5% of the total population in the US (not bad considering the number of people in the US). What it found was that overweight people had significantly increased mortality rates and that obese people were even more at risk. This was also examined with other possible concurrent risk factors for death and found that an increased BMI by itself increases the likelihood of death within 10 years compared to an individual with a health BMI (defined as between 20 and 25).

Interestingly, a BMI that is too low is also bad for you (there is such a thing as being too skinny). But before you go pounding down twinkies to try and protect yourself from a low BMI, consider this. The increased risk to your health begins around a BMI of 18 which would be a 5' 6" tall person who weighed less than 118 lbs or a 6' tall person under 140 lbs.

If you're curious you can go to the NIH's BMI Caculator and see for yourself what your BMI is. If that's not enough for you, the next step to finding out more about what kind of shape you're in would be to find out your body composition or % body fat, but that's a conversation for another time.

What's the big deal about protein?

Having just finished the Thanksgiving week and heading into the Christmas season, I thought it might be an appropriate time to return to some of my previous nutrition topics. After downing more bird than I care to admit during the last several days , protein seems like the best place to start.

If Zubaz were a definitive mark of 90's fashion, high protein diets are a definitive mark of our current decade's attempt to trim the fat. Most of these are fads aimed at dropping weight quickly without much care for the other associated health risks (i.e. Atkin's). I recently reviewed an article during my evidence based medicine class that especially highlighted the increased risks of heart disease in middle aged women who ate a high protein-low carbohydrate diet.

This isn't to say that protein is bad for you. An appropriate view of nutrition means that you need to make your eating choices based on balance and your personal circumstances will dictate your need for different nutrients. Lean protein, for instance, has been shown to help with muscle building and recovery from strenuous exercise. Another perk and perhaps more important to those who care to lose weight is that it helps with satiety. However, like all good things, there is a limit to it's effectiveness and benefits. As I talked about before, if you eat too much of anything your body will store it as fat for later.

So how much protein is enough and how much is too much. Let's take a look at what the experts have to say. In 2007 the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition wrote an article regarding their stand on "protein and exercise." If you'd like to view the entire article for yourself, just follow the hyperlink. I'll highlight some of the most important parts:

1) "Vast amounts of research" have been done that support the increased protein needs of exercising individuals. This means that, yes, you do need more protein when you work your body more. (warning: sciencey language ahead) This is because proteins are made up of amino acids which are used to build other proteins in your body including enzymes that perform metabolic processes. An athlete's increased metabolism and stresses therefore dictate the need for increased protein intake.

2) Protein intake levels ranging from 1.4-2.0 g/kg/day in exercising individuals are not only safe but may also help improve adaptations to exercise training. That's pretty self explanatory. It means that for a guy like me who weighs ~79 kg, I can eat between 110 and 158 g of protein each day in hopes of improving my athletic performance. That comes out to between 400 and 600 calories a day from protein which would be only 13-20% of my caloric intake on a day that I eat 3000 calories (which is normal or less than normal when I am in full swing with bike racing).

3) Eating protein after exercise can aid in recovery, specifically it aids in maintenance of lean muscle mass and muscular hypertrophy when consumed following resistance exercise . This is a complicated topic, and one that I think I will highlight again another time, so for more info you'll have to tune in later.

Another interesting topic on protein is how much is too much? Generally your body breaks down and reuses a set amount of its own proteins each day. This means that there is a plateau effect in supplementing protein. Amounts higher than 2.0 g/kg/day generally offer only limited increase in benefit if any increase at all. It also just so happens that eating 2.0 g/kg/day is actually rather difficult if you aren't intentional about it. A whole egg only has about 7 g of protein (I would need to eat 22 eggs to eat my 158 g of protein) or 600+ g of lean chicken...that's about 1.32 pounds.

The bottom line is that protein is an essential part of your diet whether you are an athlete or not. If you aspire to live an active lifestyle, protein becomes a more important part of your diet. Nevertheless, all things must be taken in moderation and balance must be your guiding principle. I'll leave you with the following from Mayoclinic.com:

"Remember, the healthiest diet is based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean sources of protein — not rigid lists of 'good' and 'bad' foods. "