Conversations with a Nutritionist

Yesterday I had the opportunity to hang out over coffee with rockstar nutritionist Alan Aragon and chat for a few hours about this and that. By the way he had whipped cream on his drink. err... paleo whipped cream that is!

A couple things that stuck with me was a discussion on saturated fats in regards to how big of a deal is it when it comes to body composition. According to research (and nobody knows current research like Alan) it's not as important as caloric intake when it comes to losing fat, nor does the source matter all that much.

And in the case of high fructose corn syrup, Alan says it probably won't do any more harm than regular sugar unless you are drinking the equivalent of something like 10 cans of soda per day for extended periods.

We also had a related discussion on different fad diets such as paleo, the zone, the raving no-dairy types etc... all of which don't really have solid science, nor common sense to back them up. Alot of those types of diets work because people generally cut the amount of calories they eat, thus losing weight, but ultimately it's hard to maintain ultra strict diets and so people fall off the wagon and gain the weight back.

In other words common sense. Eat what you like but make sure you get a wide variety of protein and vegetable sources.

Meat & Brotatos

Back by popular demand is 6+6 more minutes of nutritional conversation with the digital Alan Aragon. And he's obviously been getting some sun judging by the video.



Part III



And another great bonus quote:

Many folks into fitness & bodybuilding have this unproductive tendency to think in black & white extremes. They’ll scapegoat certain foods, while glorifying the magic bullets. They rarely see the integration of the various components that comprise the big picture.

For more info go check out Alan's blog.

5 Minutes of Nutrition

Men's health magazine nutrition contributor and king broski Alan Aragon brings you nutritional quotes worthy of the history books. One of his clients culled some of his best quotes and put them together in animated form.

Now I present to you Aragon's conversation with a bro Part I



Oh, and to condense one key point of nutrition: If you are having trouble losing weight then figure out how much you are eating every day, then reduce your calories to meet your goal. Not doing this will guarantee failure every time.

Stay tuned for more Aragon animation!

Nutritionism

I've been reading Michael Pollan's excellent The Omnivore's Dilemma and getting schooled on food.

Pollan's gig is very common sense: Don't eat foods your great-Grandmother wouldn't recognize, only eat foods from the perimeter of the supermarket, or better yet shop at a farmer's market/co-op, and slow down and enjoy your food.

Sales for fat-loss products & services in the U.S. is something around $60 BILLION a year. But the irony is that the reason people have to fork out for those products is because they have too much of the wrong stuff on their forks every day.

It really is simple. Ignore the latest headlines regarding miracle foods etc... because that is why half the U.S. population is obese, and just eat some real vegetables, fruits, meat, and grains.

As in training follow the K.I.S.S principle(keep it simple, stupid). Eat real food and do basic, hard exercises.

Getting down off my soapbox now, I highly encourage you to watch this video of Pollan talking at the Google Campus (yo Henry!) last year.

The KISS Principle

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are staying healthy as we head into the Christmas Season. They say the average American gains 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years, and it ain't muscle. But of course none of you are average so instead of blathering on I'm going to pass along advice from those smarter than I. Guys that have trained thousands of people.

The theme of this post is Keep It Simple Stupid, which comes to me by way of noted strength coach Dan John. By the way, everyone would benefit from reading every article by Dan right now.

Finished? We'll continue.

In discussing the genius of keeping it simple Dan brings up the Paredo 80-20 rule, named after the Italian Economist, which says that 20% of what you do produces 80% of the result. In other words stick to the basics and avoid gimmicks. But you HAVE to show up consistently and work/play hard. You HAVE to eat clean most of the time.

To quote Dan on nutrition:

Time and again, I have rediscovered the wisdom of sticking to lots of vegetables, fruits and lean meats. In addition, drinking huge amounts of water helps. What about potassium? Yes, I take that, when I buy it. Flax oil? Great stuff, keeps me regular. Whey protein? I dunno. Creatine? Water gain, I dunno. Super Amino blast? Hmmm. Bee Pollen? B-15? And on and on and on.

In addition, beware the “Bathtub Model” of nutrition. Basically, it is this: The human body is a bathtub, the spout is calories in, the drain calories out. Add more water, drain stays the same, makes you fat. Water comes in the same, drain increases, makes you lean. Very simple. So simple it is just not correct. There is an old saying about the human brain: “If it was simple enough to understand, you wouldn’t care to understand it.” The same with the body. Why do people lean out on 6,500 calories a day, while their girlfriend gets fatter (less lean, if you will) on one meal a day and six diet drinks? Because the bathtub model is rubbish!

Eat food. Eat multiple meals a day. Eat breakfast. Eat.

The KISS Principle for training:

The key is to find the 20% that leads to the “biggest bang for the buck!” Most athletes usually come to the answer that, and this is beyond what mom and dad provided at birth, in the weight room it is the basics: cleans, presses, squats. On the track, it might be stadium steps, hills or sprints. For the endurance athlete, it might be those “hard runs” with friends on Saturdays. Once an athlete knows the techniques, sometimes very great progress is made on the simplest of programs. For example, many, many lifters and throwers used the following program in the Sixties and early Seventies:

Monday: Train Hard (and heavy and go home!)

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Train Hard

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Train very hard; if competing train very hard after competition. Keep the exercise number low, the intensity high!

In other words you to make good progress you need to train three times a week, whether you are an athlete of are trying to lose weight. And you need to work HARD and intelligently. You don't need more than an hour - few have that much time nor is it necessary. Train hard and go home.

I agree with my friend Alwyn Cosgrove who says that most people know what to do, they just don't apply what they know. For example if you are trying to lose weight:

Did you train today? Did you do something that will elevate your metabolism? Did you eat supportively? Post workout shake? 5 meals? Protein at every meal? EFA's?

Stop trying to figure out a better plan if you aren't already doing all of the above.

Decide on a goal. Work hard to reach that goal and enjoy the process. Then relax and reassess.

Calories In Calories Out

The New York Times recently ran an article regarding new regulations for restaurant chains in NYC that requires menus to display calories.

Needless to say many people were surprised.

The number of calories in food shocked most New Yorkers, according to a September survey by the health department. A Starbucks blueberry scone delivers 480 calories. A Quiznos regular tuna melt is 1,270 calories. Wraps, the refuge for low-carb sandwich lovers, can top 800 calories. Bagels pack more calories than doughnuts. A large bucket of buttered movie popcorn has more than half the calories anyone should eat in a day.

Even people for whom nutrition is a way of life had no idea how many calories they were eating. Kate Adamick, a consultant who helps corporations and school districts improve their food, took a hard look at her Starbucks habit, which included bran muffins and chocolate cookies.

“Just because I work in the food world, I am not immune from this human tendency to self-delude,” she said. “I can look at a cookie that is the size of a man’s hand and think it’s only twice as big as a regular cookie, but it actually has the caloric content of four or five cookies.”

For the majority of people it really is simple. If you are having trouble losing weight then you are eating too much. And if you eat out often chances are what you are eating has too much saturated fat and starchy carbohydrates - a feature of most restaurant food, and guaranteed to pack on layers of flab. Tasty sauces, pasta, and breads are culprits here.

The first step is to figure out how many calories you are using each day. To do that use a resting metabolic rate calculator.

Now figure out how many calories you are taking in. Write down everything you eat for three days only, then use a calorie calculator to assess your average intake.

And be honest with yourself. Most people are experts at deluding themselves, myself included. You have to ask yourself if you really want to feel and look better.

Now if your caloric intake is too great then eat smaller portions and increase your activity level. Get control of your eating habits and subsequently your life.

For more resources I highly recommend TNT Nutrition. I've seen many people get great results and literally change their lives by learning to eat better and exercise smarter.

So the next time you are about to eat something think about if that momentary pleasure will help you reach your goal or carry you further from it.

Simple.