Supplements, who should take them and if so why or when?

Supplements, who should take them and if so why or when?

Dietary supplements can play an important role in health and exercise performance. While most individuals can benefit from a supplement, it is especially important for active individuals. Keep in mind, supplements are not intended to replace your food intake but rather to enhance it, far too often do I see young guys and asking what protein is the best expecting it to change their entire physique, not so! If you feel your diet needs improvement or you have specific questions about your food, feel free to ask me personally when I’m free or visit my website, brodiept.com or brodiept on Facebook. Vitamins, minerals, herbs and some processed products are popular forms of supplements. Most of these are found as pills, capsules, powders, drinks and energy bars. Because supplements are not subject to the same testing as medications, it is important to be well-informed before choosing a supplement that’s right for you, but generally speaking the cheaper the product the worse it is for you, protein shakes being a prime example. But there are several supplements that can be exceptionally beneficial for those weight training and trying to enhance their overall health and physique.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is originally derived from milk and can be isolated to create powder substance that can be ingested. Whey is considered an excellent source of protein and may increase lean tissue mass and muscle strength. One of the reasons it is so effective is because the protein full of amino acids which have a high biological value, meaning they’ll likely be used for repair rather than energy usage. Furthermore, whey protein may have a beneficial effect during a workout by keeping amino acids in the blood stream for your body’s needs and for exercise performance. Also afterward, during muscle recover it is extremely important to start the repair process straight away with fast digesting protein so recovery is shortened and performance is improved through an increase in volume being able to be implemented from shorter rest periods. Whey protein is generally the biggest supplement as getting in enough protein into the diet whilst trying to improve performance is difficult and expensive, so it serves as a cheaper alternative overall, just don’t fall for the marketing rubbish by big brands.

Essential Amino Acids

Amino acids play a central role as building blocks of protein and within metabolism. Humans can produce 10 of the 20 amino acids required by the body, thus creating two classifications: essential and non-essential amino acids. As the name implies, essential amino acids are an important part of the diet because the body cannot make them. Failure to obtain enough of even one of the nine essential amino acids can lead to a breakdown in the body, typically in the form of muscle, In simple terms eeating chicken every meal is only going to get you so much of certain amino acids, with others lacking you are just handicapping yourself.  Unlike other macronutrients our bodies do not store protein (or amino acids) therefore, ensuring adequate intake of protein on a daily basis is key, infact its stupid not to if youre serious about training.

Most of these amino acids can be found in eggs, poultry, fish, red meat, seeds and nuts. The nine essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, andvaline.

Amino acid supplements can be taken orally and are best used by the body when taken with carbohydrates. Based on a study published in the Journal of Physiology, after resistance exercise (weight training) amino acid levels in the body were decreased, therefore, the body would not be able to build and repair muscle tissue efficiently. So you guessed it – ingesting EAA straight after or even within a workout will enhance your training further – something a fillet steak between sets cannot do!

Leucine

One amino acid of particular interest to those who weight train is leucine. Leucine, isoleucine, and valine make up about one-third of all muscle protein. Of these three, leucine has been most thoroughly investigated because it also stimulated protein production in muscles. This amino acid is particularly susceptible to exercise, decreasing in the blood by 11 percent after aerobic exercise and up to 30 percent after a weight training session. If this essential amino acid is not replaced after exercise, over time, a significant decrease in performance can be measured. There is also evidence to show when you consume leucine before and during an intense workout, can prevent some of the dramatic drop.

The amount of leucine recommended is based on bodyweight and is really only necessary for active individuals. If you are a power athlete, aim for 14 to 45 mg/kg of bodyweight per day. This is a pretty wide range and research has shown that if an individual meets their daily protein needs (1.3 grams/kg bodyweight each day) then leucine levels are met. It is important to realize, leucine does not need to be isolated to be effective. If you take another supplement that includes leucine an additional supplement is not needed. To add to this and to make is simpler, if your leucine levels are low because of an unvaried diet or you’re not supplementing it, you simply will not use all the protein your taking from whatever source, yes you’re wasting your 300g’s a day, be smart and add it into your diet and don’t waste your time eating food which won’t be used, think of it as a limiting amino acid.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Fat is one of the macro nutrients – along with carbohydrates and protein – needed by the body. Fat provides us with energy and helps absorb certain vitamins, however, it is important to focus on the right fat in the right amount. Omega-3 fatty acids are especially important for overall health and are deemed as a good fat. These fats help reduce inflammation which is the major cause of  chronic diseases such as heart disease (don’t listen to that shit on the telly saying wholegrain - healthy heart, its bullshit ran by the food industry), cancer, and arthritis. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation has also been linked to improved brain health and memory, particularly in those over 50. While this may not seem important if you are a healthy individual,(like me :P) omega-3 can also help with recovery after an intense workout.

Fish, plant and nut oils are the primary dietary sources of the fatty acids. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least 2 times a week, I say eat it every day!! Government guidelines are nothing more than rubbish made up without research or studies the most of the time, think water… 2 litres a day yea? You get most of that in food anyway! Now the Industry rips you off by making you buy cheap bottled water at stupid prices – winner!  However, back to point, if you find you do not consume enough of these foods it is also effective to take a fish oil or flaxseed oil capsule.. You should inform your medical doctor if you are taking this supplement as it can interfere with some medications. Also, to preserve its effectiveness, keep your capsules in the refrigerator, this will also help with the taste.

Multivitamin

Regardless of your fitness goals, a multivitamin is always recommended. The first priority is to get variety in the foods you consume. However, it is nearly impossible to calculate the micro nutrients in your diet and including a multivitamin can make sure your diet is complete with all the nutrients needed. When choosing a multivitamin pick a daily vitamin with 100% of the Daily Value for most vitamins and minerals. There are special circumstances that may warrant additional vitamins or minerals. For example women may need additional folic acid while pregnant or calcium if at risk for osteoporosis.

Even though a multivitamin should cover all your nutrient needs, some individuals also need magnesium and zinc supplementation. Magnesium is found in relatively large amount in the body and is responsible for about 300 chemical reactions that keep the body working properly, yeah that did say 300, no im not stating them and yes its important!  Additionally, magnesium can help with fatigue, anxiety, high blood pressure, leg cramps, migraines, premenstrual syndrome, asthma and hay fever (just to name a few common problems). Food that are high in fiber are generally high in magnesium so if you find yourself not consuming many of those foods a magnesium supplement is right for you. Also small amounts of zinc are necessary for human health, however, it is important for proper growth and maintenance in the body. It is also known to boost the immune system, that magic killer inside us which batters bad things, yup he wants fed, so feed him/her please. There are also links between zinc supplementation and improved athletic performance and strength,

Caffeine

Caffeine is categorized as a stimulant to your central nervous system, btw the CNS rules all, no ifs no buts. Anyways Caffeine helps ward off drowsiness and restoring alertness, hence why I take 2 -3 coffees a day to stay super! (Tongue in cheek) Caffeine is mostly found in beverages such as coffee, tea, drinks and many other forms. There are both positive and negative effects of caffeine, which is why is important to consume less than 1000 mg per day, not mentioning any names but I remember someone consuming 1g of caffeine preworkout and he went purple – the hulk was green btw so bad idea! Positive effects of caffeine include increased attention and alertness, lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower risk of diabetes, and increased metabolic rate. However, if consumed in large quantities caffeine can cause anxiety and addiction, increased blood pressure, and stimulation of urination.

Caffeine has the ability to slightly boost weight loss and prevent weight gain in the short-term. Caffeine may reduce your desire to eat for a brief time while also stimulating thermogenesis – a way your body generates heat. Avoid caffeinated drinks high in fat or calories which undo any positive effect of the stimulant. While caffeine may not produce significant weight loss they may have a slight impact, help ward off a craving or help you have more energy for your workout.

A good look at your diet will point you in the right direction when choosing a supplement. Familiarize yourself with the label and talk to a professional if you have concerns, yup me not the holland and barrett staff.

Cheers

BrodiePT.  

Women and Weight Training, Is it important?

Women are always faced with the same conundrum: how to lose weight and lean out without bulking up. For years weight training has been associated with large, masculine muscles (my shoulder for example :P)  which is why, even today, you walk into a gym and find the cardio equipment packed with females thinking they’re torching calories. Both cardio and weight training have positive effects on the body, however, when considering the most effective exercise to burn fat and change the body a properly designed weight training program wins, hands down, no argument!

Weight Training: Health Benefits

While a pure cardio activity – think running, cycling, hill walking, whatever – will burn about 120 calories more in an hour generally than weights, but lifting weights spikes your metabolic rate for hours after a workout, google EPOC if you haven’t read my HIIT article. This means even after you complete the workout your body is still burning extra energy – about 25% more, an easy way to check this would be to check your heart rate 90 minutes after your workout, s it elevated above resting? Yes? Happy days!  This means that even though you burn more during the hour on the treadmill, lifting weights burns about the same amount of calories overtime plus many other benefits, think hormones think joint stabilization think having an actual shape attached to your bones!  While calorie burn is important for fat loss, most women work out to see results. See a change in the body, mood, and overall health.

Many studies have been conducted testing how the body responds to a variety of exercise. Time and time again successfully adding weight training to a fitness routine builds more lean muscle (booty anyone?) and burns more fat. According to a study conducted by Ball State University, the average woman who strength trains two to three times a week, for eight weeks, gains 1.75 pounds of lean muscle and loses 3.5 pounds of fat. For those wanting to see a change in the mirror this is fantastic news! Furthermore, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn, even when you’re not working out! For each additional pound of muscle you have, you burn 40 extra calories, meaning if you gain 3 pounds of muscle you are burning 120 more calories per day and that could be the difference between your body shape going wobbly (literally) or staying lean and healthy.

Moving on, stress and depression is something that affects many people with rates rising yearly. Professional help is always recommended, but for the general population, regular exercise has been linked to improved mood. A Harvard study found that strength training reduced clinical depression symptoms, even more so than traditional counseling services. To bring this home look at me when I’m training, yes I look happy :D no don’t come chat to me!. Additionally, women who strength train report feeling more confident and capable as a result of their training program.

When it comes to creating a healthy lifestyle regular exercise is essential. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans for example recommends 300 minutes of moderate- and vigorous-activity weekly for substantial health benefits and disease prevention. Adding exercise to your routine reduces your risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and certain mental health issues.

Osteoporosis is of particular concern for women and is often referred to as the “silent disease,” with few symptoms to indicate you have it. The great news is that this disease can be prevented. With a calcium-rich diet (at least 1,000 milligrams per day) and exercise women can reduce their risk substantially. Keep in mind it’s not just any type of exercise, to improve bone density you must include weight-bearing exercises, squats anyone?

The overall health benefits of an effectively designed strength training program are obvious. The positive impact incorporating this type of activity into your regular routine will not only provide results now but those benefits will prove even greater down the road with an improved quality of life.

Weight Training: Program Design

Many may be envisioning their next trip to the gym tethered to the weight rack, cranking out traditional bicep curls but this, too, is an ineffective use of your limited gym time. So what is the answer? A moderate- to high-intensity weight training program designed to target all muscle groups (over a period of time) while incorporating aerobic exercises.

You may be familiar with circuit training and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) which combines intense bouts of cardio – ie: a 1 minute sprint, burpees, pullups, plyo pressups – be sick and repeat, well you should be familiar if you’re a client or you've read my blogs! This type of training had proven to be far superior to continuous endurance training from a cardiovascular, metabolic, and muscle function perspective. Participants who regularly did circuit or HIIT programs saw greater improvements in these areas, which also provided longer term results in body shape and performance.

If you are just starting a fitness program or consider yourself a fitness enthusiast, it is wise to work with a fitness professional to create a safe and effective program. To begin, it is most important to consider your goals. Most women want to create lean muscle without the bulk, potentially targeting certain areas of the body.  Consider the duration, intensity, and frequency when designing a routine and knowing how it will fit into your week. Each program should include high-effort activity, active rest, and recovery. When considering active rest and recovery phases providing movement which incorporates several muscle groups is one way to keep the heart rate high while remaining efficient with your time.  Many studies around interval training use a 1:1 ratio – for example,  30 seconds on, 30 seconds off - but changing up the intervals  not only challenges the body but keep you interested over the long term.

Regardless of your fitness level, it is important to ensure you fully recover between sessions do to the high-intensity nature of the workout. In other words don’t do HIIT 6 days a week unless you’re a professional athlete with a plan in place. This may mean that you do not use this type of training every session, alternating between a more traditional routine and more cardio. However, research says three times per week may produce the best results and limit injury. As with all training programs, form comes before all and ensuring you are safe may mean easing into a high-intensity program. If you have been inactive prior to beginning a programme, consider incorporating elements of high-intensity sessions versus creating an entire session from them. For example, mixing in 15 minutes of interval work within an hour session and slowly increasing as you improve.  

Working with a personal trainer like myself will ensure you are meeting your goals, completing exercises with proper form, and pushing yourself to see results is the best option. With a woman’s health and fitness in mind, a fitness program is not complete without regular weight training. For more information, programmes or PT visit brodiept.com and drop me a message.

Thanks

Brodie

FAD DIETS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

FAD DIETS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Whether your goal is to lose weight or you are embarking on a healthier lifestyle, your diet is a key component to the task at hand. Without question, there are many benefits that come from proper dieting. Not only will you lose weight, but you will properly address many health related issues such as high blood pressure and cholesterol as well. Unfortunately, there is a dark side to dieting as well. This is especially evident with the many fad diets that are literally popping up on a seemingly daily basis. These diets promise quick results, with very little effort on your part.

The truth of the matter, however, is that while these diets appeal to our sense of wanting to accomplish our health goals quickly; they are not actually very effective at producing the lifestyle results you are really after. In fact, if you are not careful, many of these fad diets can cause more harm than good. This is why it’s smart to consult with a personal trainer before beginning any type of fitness program. Not only can a personal trainer help design a program that works, but one can also help steer you away from the things that do not. Of course, seeing is believing, so let’s take a look as a few of the more trendy fad diets and see what they are really about.

Herbalife

Herbalife is a multi-billion dollar company that provides a wide range of marketed nutritional and weight loss products. Quite naturally, the company has dieting plans that take advantage of these items. Essentially, the Herbalife diet is all about meal replacement/reduction and the consumption of their shakes and pills as nutritional supplements. The guidelines, such as they are, are simple enough. You only eat one meal a day, which is dinner. For the other two meals, you drink a Herbalife protein shake and take multivitamins.

Easy enough to be sure, but there are a few problems with this approach to dieting. For the sake of brevity, I will just mention two significant issues. The first concern is that this type of diet will alter the function of your metabolism. This happens because of the lack on calorie consumption. As a result, once you start eating again, your metabolism is not prepared to adequately deal with the increase in calories and you will begin putting the weight you loss back on, plus a few pounds extra.  This leads to the second problem and that is one of weight loss over the long term. Simply, unless you plan on remaining on the Herbalife diet for your entire life, then the moment you come off of it, you will begin to gain your weight back even with a reasonable diet.

Juicing

Juicing is another meal replacement diet.  This particular plan uses concentrated fruits and vegetables as the supplement of choice. Basically, instead of eating a meal or two, you will instead consume a drink that is composed of fruits and vegetables that you liquefy in a juicer. On the surface, the intake of natural ingredients like oranges and carrots seems ideal. The problem is when you utilize this method as a meal replacement diet.

One of the most significant problems with this particular diet is the high probability you will not get all of the necessary nutrients that you need to sustain healthy bodily functions.  This is especially true if you do not have the expertise to properly prepare your foods or know exactly what combinations you require. Equally, the lack of protein and fat can cause fluctuations in your blood sugar levels that can be very problematic. There is also the issue of a lack of fiber, which is important for proper digestion.

Crash Dieting

Crash dieting is one of those methods for losing weight that appeals to people who have an immediate need for weight loss results. It also happens to be a very dangerous way to go about this task. The basic premise of this diet is to basically starve the body for a period of time, generally for a few weeks at the most. Very little calorie intake is involved, usually much lower than what is recommended for prolonged survival. The diet is, in some instances, combined with intense exercise regimens, which only exacerbates the problems that this type of dieting can cause. Essentially, this form of dieting is akin to starving yourself.

Virtually no health or personal fitness professional will recommend a crash diet. The risks are quite serious in that these diets can weaken the body’s immune system, expose you to the risks of dehydration and cause stress on your heart. In fact, health professionals warn that repeated use of crash diets can severely weaken the heart, including the loss of heart muscle tissue and possibly heart attacks.

Cambridge Diet

The Cambridge Diet is another meal replacement and supplement plan. The company’s supplement drink/shake is stated to have all of the required nutrients that your body requires; including protein, fat and carbohydrates. The basic plan has dieters consuming the provided supplement shake prior to a low calorie meal(s). The regular plan can have you opting to eat either 3 meals in a day or just a single meal. In either case, the total daily intake from a meal(s) should be in the 400 to 800 calories range. Their fast track program, on the other hand, has you consuming their signature shake 3 to 4 times a day with no food at all.

The plan has many of the inherent issues that you will find in both the Herbalife and Crash diets. Consider this one additional point - a healthy caloric intake is about 1200 calories. The Cambridge plan recommends calorie consumption as low 400. This is essentially starvation level and can result in metabolic imbalance ketosis. This is where your body burns not only fat, but also lean muscle tissue which is something you do not want to do.

The Solution

The bottom line with meal replacement diets like the ones we have discussed is that in the long run, they are not overly effective. They tend to be popular because they are simple, usually do not require an exercise regimen, and you will achieve fairly quick weight loss results. Unfortunately, however, as we have shown there is serious health risks associated with these practices. Plus, you will find that you are likely to regain any weight that you managed to lose, negating the whole point of the endeavor.

The solution is to take a common sense, time proven approach to your dieting and healthy lifestyle choices like what is offered through my online training and personal trainer services. This is where a personal or online trainer can greatly assist you. Really, dieting is a misnomer that connotes temporary results. A much better way of looking at what you want to accomplish is to establish health promoting eating habits. This entails a personal trainer helping you design a meal plan (yes, eating is a good thing!) that emphasizes reasonable caloric intake. There are certain foods you want to avoid, such as processed foods, dairy products and products with added sugars. Conversely, you want to consume nutrient rich foods such as meat from grass fed animals, seafood and green leafy vegetables. All of this can be combined into a nutritious meal plan that is actually fulfilling and will not have you starving yourself in order to get the results you want. Indeed, a paleo centric diet has worked for mankind for thousands of years and is a centerpiece of our program offerings at brodiept.com. Equally, when combined with a moderate exercise regime designed especially for your needs, you will have a total lifestyle package that is healthy, sustainable and obtains the healthy results you desire. 

Thanks for reading

Brodie

Brodiept.com