Conditioning Research

Here is an interesting study that indicates that Intermittent Fasting - as prescribed in Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat - works well for fat loss. ( Interviewed Brad Pilon here ) There are some good thoughts on the study here from the researchers: The results defy the notion that fasting or dieting leads to gorging later; they also counter the idea that people have a genetically determined set point weight. However, the study suggests a new strategy for losing weight. Although chronic lifestyle changes (eating healthier foods and getting more exercise) are preferable ways to lose weight, Levitsky said, a weekly fast might be another way to go. Since it takes 10 to 14 days to recover the body tissue lost from a one-day fast, "Going without food for one day each week should produce a significant reduction in body weight over time," Levitsky said, now that we know that "fasting does not lead to overeating, and total recovery of body tissue does not occur within the week....

This is a concept that hovers around a few training programmes and dietary approaches: training when you have low muscle glycogen either through prior intense exercise to deplete the glycogen (this is the approach Rusty takes in his Treadmill Ninja course ) or via a low carb diet. Good to see a study to look at the concept. Training in a state of glycogen depletion limited performance but increased fat burning. It would be interesting to see this compared with Phinney's work on low carb and endurance training. Training with Low Muscle Glycogen Enhances Fat Metabolism in Well-Trained Cyclists. PURPOSE:: To determine the effects of training with low muscle glycogen on exercise performance, substrate metabolism, and skeletal muscle adaptation. METHODS:: Fourteen well-trained cyclists were pair-matched and randomly assigned to HIGH or LOW-glycogen training groups. Subjects performed 9 aerobic training (AT; 90 min at 70% VO2max) and 9 high-intensity interval-training sessions (HIT; ...

This study provides preliminary evidence that long-term weight loss with a very-low-carbohydrate diet does not adversely affect renal function compared with a high-carbohydrate diet in obese individuals with normal renal function. Renal Function Following Long-Term Weight Loss in Individuals with Abdominal Obesity on a Very-Low-Carbohydrate Diet vs High-Carbohydrate Diet .

See what you make of this : Dietary cholesterol and egg consumption were associated with increased CVD risk ONLY in those with type 2 diabetes. Comments?

the impact of the mind on your health is wildly underapprecited. I think many health problems are at root exacerbated by - if not caused by - psychological stress. It is not just our diet that is far divorced from what it should be, it is our psychological state. We are chronically stressed. Anyway typically, optimism is good for your immune system: Optimism boosts the immune system Feeling better about the future might help you feel better for real. In a new study, psychological scientists Suzanne Segerstrom of the University of Kentucky and Sandra Sephton of the University of Louisville studied how law students' expectations about the future affected their immune response. Their conclusions: Optimism may be good for your health. Other studies have found that people who are optimistic about their health tend to do better. For example, people who are optimistic about heart transplant surgery recover better from that grueling operation. But it's not clear how optimism affect...

Stephan mentioned this the other day and I just saw it pop across my regular pubcrawler search: A diet based on high-heat-treated foods promotes risk factors for diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. RESULTS: In comparison with the steamed diet, 1 mo consuming the high-heat-treated diet induced significantly lower insulin sensitivity and plasma concentrations of long-chain n-3 (omega-3) fatty acids and vitamins C and E [-17% (P

interesting idea from The Maxwell

Sleep Warrior has an interesting article on ketosis and sleep : Ultimately, I think there’s something about the insulin roller coasters we put ourselves on by constantly consuming sugary or starchy foods — and it seems to be impairing how our brains function. The idea is that by fueling our brain cells with an “alternative” source of energy (ketones) we allow them to operate more efficiently, perhaps despite any damage done from too much glucose and insulin.

As is often the case, this is not that surprising: The data imply that daytime naps have a potential role as a valuable recovery tool following endurance exercise, I wish I had the opportunity to taek smoe daily naps in the afternoon. Unfortunately work intervenes. The effect of prior endurance training on nap sleep patterns. PURPOSE : The use of daytime napping as a recovery tool following exercise is virtually unexplored. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of daytime nap sleep following endurance training in an athletic population, and to appraise the optimal circadian timing of the nap and the time interval between training and the nap. METHODS : Six physically trained male subjects (22.5 +/- 2.4 y) performed four separate standardized 90-min endurance training sessions followed by a 90-min daytime nap either 1 or 2 h after training (time interval), commencing at either 10:30 or 11:30 (circadian timing). During the nap, sleep was monitored using polysomnography. ...

Well maybe. This study at least indicates that the normal accepted markers of cardiovascular risk are not changed by increased whole-grain intake. So despite the conventional wisdom it seems that an increased intake of whole grains is worthless for your heart....... Markers of cardiovascular risk are not changed by increased whole-grain intake: the WHOLEheart study, a randomised, controlled dietary intervention. Recommendations for whole-grain (WG) intake are based on observational studies showing that higher WG consumption is associated with reduced CVD risk. No large-scale, randomised, controlled dietary intervention studies have investigated the effects on CVD risk markers of substituting WG in place of refined grains in the diets of non-WG consumers. A total of 316 participants (aged 18-65 years; BMI>25 kg/m2) consuming

So if you have osteoarthritis in your knees, you would be well advised to go barefoot or in minimal shoes... keep away from supportive, stable shoes with stiff soles. Shoes: A treatment for osteoarthritis in the knees? "Traditionally, footwear has been engineered to provide maximum support and comfort for the foot, with little attention paid to the biomechanical effects on the rest of the leg," said Dr. Najia Shakoor, a rheumatologist at Rush and the primary author of the study. "But the shoes we wear have a substantial impact on the load on the knee joints, particularly when we walk." " Our study demonstrated that flat, flexible footwear significantly reduces the load on the knee joints compared with supportive, stable shoes with less flexible soles." Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and a significant source of disability and impaired quality of life. A higher-than-normal load on the knees during walking is a hallmark of the disease, as...

On Keith Thomas' EvFit site he has a page devoted to tracing the history of the current interest in the Paleo Lifestyle movement . It is interesting to track the growth of the movement and the current explosion of interest - the last few months things seem to have crept out of the shadows and the special interest and it is almost the latest fashion, the latest fad. Anyway, early on in Keith's analysis is the note: 1999 - Ray Audette's Neanderthin published Back before Mark Sisson , before Art DeVany , before Loren Cordain , before EvFit , before MovNat , before Free the Animal , before mainstream newspapers were talking about the "Caveman Diet".....Ray Audette wrote a book about the paleo diet - Neanderthin . I bought it 5 or 6 years ago when I was I was just starting to investigate low carb diets and enjoyed the simplicity of the concept and the quality of the approach. (Keith has a good overview of the book). It was at the time a unique book, bre...

Just a quick heads up on a couple of articles I saw over the weekend indicating that long distance running is bad for the cardiovascular system, despite apparently positive impacts on the normal metrics for cariovascular health. Kurt notes and points to one on Medpage Open Water Chicago points to a separate report on the same research in abcNews Researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute and Foundation found that these runners faced a greater risk of accumulating plaque in their coronary arteries – despite having less body fat, lower LDL cholesterol levels, and lower heart rates. An abcnews comment amuses me: No one is sure exactly what the plaque findings mean. Well, we can guess.

I've previously pointed to the excellent book Born to Run , which looked at barefoot running within a narrative of a marathon in Mexico involving the Tarahumara Indians. The book also features " Barefoot Ted" here he is talking to the Google Staff:

Quite a few newspapers picked up on this study - e.g the Independent As usual NHS Choices calms things down and tries to maintain the paradigm! While this type of research may suggest theoretical benefits to short bursts of intensive exercise, it does not change the fact that regular, moderate-intensity exercise is good for our health. Anyway, this one adds to the evidence of the efficacy of intervals Here is what the researchers say : "We have shown that interval training does not have to be 'all out' in order to be effective," says Professor Martin Gibala. "Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously." A practical model of low-volume high-intensity interval training induces mitochondrial biogenesis in human skeletal muscle: potential mechanisms High-intensity interval training (HIT) i...

This is an mind / body one. From the abstract below it is not clear what they did or how they reached the conclusion, but it brings to mind something that Frank Forencich pointed to last year Can Your Brain Fight Fatigue? .....many (but not all) physiologists now believe that exhaustion isn’t just in the muscles but also involves the brain. “What we now think is that the muscle isn’t acting on its own,” he says. “There’s an interplay of central processing and muscular exertion.” From the outset of exercise, “the brain asks for and gets constant feedback from the muscles and other systems especially about body temperature” and checks on “how are things going,” says Carl Foster, a professor in the department of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse. Through mechanisms that aren’t fully understood, the brain tracks and calibrates the amount of fuel that is in the muscles, as well as the body’s core temperature. As the amount of fuel drops and the temper...

Interesting stuff from Dr Briffa: Gluten and milk linked with constipation in kids

I have pointed to stuff on telomere length previously - e.g. Marathons make your muscles old - Telomeres are structures at the ends of human chromosomes that protect DNA from damage. To help you visualize them, they are often compared to the little plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces. As cells age and replicate, their telomeres shorten. When telomeres become critically short, cells stop functioning properly. So, the general idea is that telomeres may be a “biological clock” that reflects your physiological age/health more accurately than your chronological age. In other words, the longer the telomeres, the healthier the cells. (from here ) Here is an interesting looking study about telomere length in fat. If you are fat or - ever have been - then your fat is biologically old. Now I have no idea what to make of that, but it is something to ponder. Your fat cells are older than they should be when you are obese. That is not healthy. Telomere length of subcutaneous adipose tissue...

It seems like all the paleo bloggers are pulling togetehr to promote Mark Sisson's book and to get it up the Amazon sales charts. I reviewed it way back - here - but for an update on Mark's promotional free gifts etc I'll point to Kurt's post .

Stephan is one of the top researchers and writers in this little corner of the internet..... An interview with him has just been published which provides a great summary of his ideas: Researchers followed volunteers for twenty years, and found that the amount of butter they ate had no relation to their risk of having a heart attack. On the other hand, people who ate the most margarine had nearly twice the risk of having a heart attack as people who ate none. Saturated fat is a red herring that has been overemphasized largely for historical reasons. One fat that is clearly important is omega-3. It's found mostly in seafood, flax, green vegetables, and fats from pasture-raised animals. It's critical to have a regular source of omega-3 in the diet.

This post links back to one I made in January: your most recent workout is the most important....and stay low carb in that one I pointed out research that each workout was important, each session had an immediate impact on making you healthier. It is not just an ongoing state that you are creating....but also you are benefitting from each time you train (with certain caveats). Anyway I saw this study today and it seems to indicate similar things: the conclusion is that : These results demonstrate an important mechanism by which each individual exercise session may incrementally reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women. It is there again, every session matters...everyone has an impact. As was pointed out in comments on the last post, this is motivational. What you do in this immediate workout will have a benefit...it will make you healthier. Here is the abstract: Plasma triglyceride concentrations are rapidly reduced following individual bouts of endurance exercis...

Well some studies just make you go "eh?" Exercise dependence and the drive for muscularity in male bodybuilders, power lifters, and fitness lifters. Researchers have hypothesized differences in exercise dependence and drive for muscularity between bodybuilders and power lifters, while others have not found the predicted differences. This study assessed 146 weight lifters (bodybuilders, n=59; power lifters, n=47; fitness lifters, n=40) on the Exercise Dependence Scale, Bodybuilding Dependence Scale, and the Drive for Muscularity Scale. Results showed that bodybuilders and power lifters were significantly higher than fitness lifters on EDS Total, 7 EDS scales, and the 3 BDS scales. In contrast, power lifters were found to be significantly higher on DMS Total and DMS Behavior scales than bodybuilders. The regression results suggest that exercise dependence may be directly related to the drive for muscularity. First of all it is surprising that there are three scales: Exercise De...

The other day Skyler mentioned a book he was reading. He said: Lessons from “T he Blue Zones .” I think there’s some good information here, especially for those who wish to impart a black and white view into diet and exercise. I was intrigued. I looked around and found the relevant website , and also ordered the book from Amazon. The book tries to pull out some lessons about living a long healthy life by looking at the factors which some really lon lived communities around the world have in common: Here at BlueZones.com , we've organized these behaviors into four main categories: Move Naturally – Make your home, community and workplace present you with natural ways to move. Focus on activities you love, like gardening, walking and playing with your family. Right Outlook – Know and be able to articulate your sense of purpose, and ensure your day is punctuated with periods of calm. Eat Wisely – Instead of groping from fad diet to fad diets, use time-honored strategies for eating ...

I thought I'd point out that Art DeVany has made some comments about my interview with Keith Thomas . His thoughts are - as ever - engaging and provoking. As to the curious concern Chris asks Keith to comment on about the libertarian slant that sometimes perturbs some people or may be seen as egotism on my part, that attitude comes from two sources: 1. I had to take responsibility for my family's health in the face of the evidence that my our doctors were giving us bad advice regarding the treatment of their type 1 diabetes. 2. my research in economics and complex systems taught me that the order in human physiology---a truly decentalized, complex system operating far from equilibrium---is an emergent property, not one that is determined by top down control. This is true also of a life of freedom. There is no neglect of social interactions or the state of the world; indeed, these are part of the constraints and institutions that help to shape an emergent order. 3. Hunter gath...

This one gets a bit boring, but check out his abs at 6:30 According to the note on YouTube, he alternates 100+ press ups and 100+ ab wheel rolls every day. the result of 30 years healthy living and a daily dose of cod liver oil. legend!

This is freaky. I must admit I wonder how "healthy" this is for the kid. There are other videos that I can't embed....but check out the kid's physique in this one!

This one caught my eye because it was about High Intensity Exercise....so I thought Body by Science . Actually it is just another study on intervals. Intervals - good for cardiorespiratory fitness but not necessarily for: lowering the subjects resting heart rate, lowering fat percentage or reducing the ratio between total and HDL plasma cholesterol. Increasing total bone mass and lean body mass needs weight training. Interesting material. High-Intensity Training Vs. Traditional Exercise Interventions for Promoting Health PURPOSE:: to determine the effectiveness of brief intense interval training as exercise intervention for promoting health and evaluate potential benefits with reference to common interventions; i.e. prolonged exercise and strength training. METHODS:: 36 untrained men were divided into groups that completed 12 weeks of intense interval running (INT; total training time 40 min a week), prolonged running ( approximately 150 min/week), strength training ( approximately...

So, it seems (for overweight women) Resistance exercise in combination with a ketogenic diet reduces body fat without significantly changing Lean body mass (LBM) Resistance exercise on a regular diet may increase LBM without significantly affecting fat mass. So to lose fat and maintain muscle do weights on a low carb diet? The full text is available: Resistance training in overweight women on a ketogenic diet conserved lean body mass while reducing body fa t

Here is an interesting little report: Far from being a food spoiler, the fluorescent lighting in supermarkets actually can boost the nutritional value of fresh spinach, scientists are reporting. The finding could lead to improved ways of preserving and enhancing the nutritional value of spinach and perhaps other veggies, they suggest in a study in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The full text of the study is available. Here is the abstract: Current retail marketing conditions allow produce to receive artificial light 24 h per day during its displayed shelf life. Essential human-health vitamins [ascorbic acid (vit C), folate (vit B9), phylloquinone (vit K1), α-tocopherol (vit E), and the carotenoids lutein, violaxanthin, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene (provit A)] also are essential for photosynthesis and are biosynthesized in plants by light conditions even under chilling temperatures. Spinach leaves, notably abundant in the aforementioned human-health compo...

I spotted this on the BBC the other day. Actually, it is not just low carb diets. The researchers looked at 3 different diets: Researchers studied 140 people (88 percent men, average age 51, Body Mass Index 30.4) who were randomly assigned to a low-carbohydrate, low fat or Mediterranean diet as part of the Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial-carotid (DIRECT) study. What doesn't really hit the headlines is that while each of the diets was effective in reversing the atherosclerosis process, the low carb diet was the most effective in terms of its favorable effects on lipids in the blood. Even the BBC note: "Some people suggest that low-carbohydrate diets are more likely to clog arteries, but we did not see that ." Sounds like something for Dr Davies Here is the study abstract: Dietary Intervention to Reverse Carotid Atherosclerosis. BACKGROUND: -It is currently unknown whether dietary weight loss interventions can induce regression of carotid atherosclerosi...