2009 Studies & Research Blog

Time and time again I see people recommending the use of Tribulus for boosting testosterone. Its a shame that people somehow still believe or want to believe this compound is worth spending any money on. Since this column is about the science, let’s see what’s out there. In a study done at the Human Performance Lab in NV the researchers found that "Supplementation with tribulus does not enhance body composition or exercise performance in resistance-trained males." (1) The Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses did a short term study to see if using tribulus would effect the hormone levels of athletes who compete in drug tested events. (2) What were their findings? "The short-term treatment with Tribulus terrestris showed no impact on the endogenous testosterone metabolism of the two subjects." Now I know what you are thinking, it was only two subjects, how about something with a bigger test group. No problem. How about 22 elite male Austrailian rugby athletes, certainly that’s a good group of people to test tribulus on.(3) By now you may have guessed that the outcome was not good. Specifically they found "no between-group differences were noted in the urinary T/E ratio. It was concluded that T. terrestris did not produce the large gains in strength or lean muscle mass that many manufacturers claim can be experienced within 5-28 days." The results also backed up the Swiss Lab syud by finding that "T. terrestris did not alter the urinary T/E ratio and would not place an athlete at risk of testing positive based on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s urinary T/E ratio limit of 4:1." The final nail in the coffin comes in this last study done in Bulgaria. (4) Neychev and Mitev from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Medical University in Sofia Bulgaria tested tribulus in twenty-one healthy young 20-36 years old men with body weight ranging from 60 to 125 kg. They concluded "tribulus terrestris steroid saponins possess neither direct nor indirect androgen-increasing properties."

So what is the quick and easy take home message? If you are a man or women who wants to gain muscle, lose fat, increase testosterone or any other natural anabolic or androgenic hormones then DO NOT USE TRIBULUS!

1.The effects of Tribulus terrestris on body composition and exercise performance in resistance-trained males.

Antonio J, Uelmen J, Rodriguez R, Earnest C. Human Performance Laboratory, University of Nebraska, Kearney, NE 68849-3101, USA.

2. Short term impact of Tribulus terrestris intake on doping control analysis of endogenous steroids.

Saudan C, Baume N, Emery C, Strahm E, Saugy M.
Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses, Institut Universitaire de M?decine L?gale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, Chemin des Croisettes 22, 1066 Epalinges, Switzerland.
3. The effect of five weeks of Tribulus terrestris supplementation on muscle strength and body composition during preseason training in elite rugby league players.

Rogerson S, Riches CJ, Jennings C, Weatherby RP, Meir RA, Marshall-Gradisnik SM.
School of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Southern Cross University Lismore, New South Wales, Australia.

4. The aphrodisiac herb Tribulus terrestris does not influence the androgen production in young men.
Neychev VK, Mitev VI.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Medical University, 2 Zdrave str., Sofia-1431, Bulgaria.

You should know by now that getting in carbohydrates and protein immediately after a workout is going to play a big role in your success.   Not only will the post-workout meal help you replenish your energy stores for the next workout you do, but it’s going to be important to promoting proper muscle re-synthesis, which is critical for maintaining or building new muscle mass.

While most people will choose a protein powder for directly after their workout since it’s quick, easy, and readily digestible, the carbohydrate source often gets a little more confusing for most.

Should you use a really quick digesting source or mix it with a slow digesting source? Is pure dextrose the best way to go? What about fruit post-workout? Does it have a place in your shakes?

These are some of the questions that many people find themselves wondering.

Recently, researchers out of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences in Birmingham looked at the difference it makes when you consume pure glucose post-workout in comparison with consuming glucose and fructose.

The design was to have two groups of six endurance-trained men perform exhaustive exercise that depleted their glycogen stores.

One group was to have a pure glucose solution, consisting of 90 grams total, while the other ingested a glucose-fructose solution, with 60 grams of glucose and 30 grams of fructose.  They had this drink immediately following the workout, and then every 30 minutes thereafter for a total of 4 hours.

The results of the study demonstrated that the immediate post-exercise muscle glycogen concentration was similar with both drinks, therefore demonstrating that both fructose and glucose can be used in the post-workout beverage.

It is important to note the concentrations however, in that there was still more glucose than fructose in the combined beverage.  

The results might have been different had the proportions been reversed, and fructose was the higher concentration of carbohydrate source.

So, the take home message here is that it is fine to use some fructose post-workout – a banana thrown into your shake, or if you’re the post-workout candy type, one that does have some fructose, just don’t go overboard with it.

The most important thing will be making sure that you get enough carbohydrates in total to promote full recovery.

Reference:
Hulston, CJ. (2008) Post-Exercise muscle glycogen synthesis with combined glucose and fructose ingestion.  Med Sci Sports Exercise. Oct: 40(10):1789-94

CoQ10 is a coenzyme located in the mitochondria in living organisms. It is essential for energy synthesis in the body and has been shown to act as an antioxidant to its ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species (free radicals). It has been also used by many dyslipidemic patients who are undergoing statin treatment due to statins ability to reduce CoQ10 levels. Not only that, but current research is suggesting that CoQ10 supplementation helps in neuroprotection, migraines, and blood pressure. Interestingly, researchers from the Laboratory of Applied Physiology at Kyoto University have designed a study to determine if CoQ10 supplementation pre-exercise had any effect on fat oxidation.  

The researchers assessed the acute effects of a single dose of coQ10 ( on males who exercised on a stationary cycle ergometer for 10 min at 60 rpm with an intensity of 30% of heart rate reserve. At the end of the trial session the researchers found out that there were no significant differences in heart rate between the CoQ10 and placebo trials at rest or during exercise.However, they found out that the coQ10 group had higher fat oxidation during exercise. They concluded that :

"CoQ10 may increase fat oxidation with augmented autonomic nervous activity during low intensity exercise"

Reference:

Zheng A, Moritani T.J. Influence of CoQ10 on Autonomic Nervous Activity and Energy Metabolism during Exercise in Healthy Subjects. Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2008 Aug;54(4):286-90.

Nut eaters weigh less than non-nut eaters. This applies to those who eat peanuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, and macadamia nuts.

Nuts are high in fat and calories, but they fill you up, so you eat fewer calories during the day. Nuts also increase caloric consumption during digestion. A Perdue University study showed that nuts are difficult to digest and that much of their energy ends up in the feces. Whole peanuts caused greater energy loss during digestion and elimination than peanut butter, peanut oil or peanut flour. Fat and energy loss during digestion of whole peanuts accounts for their effects on weight loss in spite of their high fat and caloric content.

Peanuts promote weight control by providing a sense of fullness, increasing the energy cost of digestion and reducing intestinal absorption of the fat and calories. Peanuts are also an excellent source of fiber.

SOURCE: International Journal of Obesity, 32: 322-328, 2008.

You hear it time and time again when getting advice while trying to lose weight – eat smaller, but more frequent meals to boost your rate of fat loss.

Is there any truth to this though?

Researchers out of the Warsaw Agricultural University in Poland recently set out to assess the influence of meal frequency on changes in body weight and protein status.  This was determined by  measuring the rate of amino acid oxidation while all subjects were on a fixed daily protein intake.

The test groups were either given two large meals a day – one in the morning and one at the end, or six evenly spaced meals throughout the day, with both groups receiving the same amount of protein each.

It was seen that after 3 weeks of this type of feeding schedule, the group that was fed continuously had almost a 20% higher growth rate than the rats who were fed the two meals, demonstrating that more frequent feedings, as far as protein oxidation is concerned, is more preferable.

Therefore, to put this into practice, try as best as you can to evenly space your meals and protein distribution out throughout the day.  This will help deliver you the best results in terms of muscular growth.

It is important to note though that regardless of how the protein is spread out, if you’re not getting enough protein to begin with, you will definitely see declines in training status.

Reference:
Buijko, J. et al.  (1997). Benefit of more but smaller meals at a fixed daily protein intake.  Warsaw Agricultural University, Poland.

EAA’s vs EAA’s+CHO effects on muscle protein synthesis

It is often stated that the combination of carbohydrate (CHO)+ Essential amino-acids (EAA) is more effective  at stimulating muscle protein synthesis  than EAA/protein alone. This blog entry reviews two very closely matched studies to get a more accurate picture of the answer to the question at hand.
The first study uses a beverage of 6g of EAA+35g of CHO. The other study uses just 6g of EAA and no carbohydrate included. Using the typical measurement of muscle protein synthesis by looking at net uptake of phenylalanine, the values between the EAA+CHO group were compared to the EAA only group of subjects. The results showed, the EAA+CHO brought about NO greater stimulation of muscle protein synthesis than the EAA only group.  In terms of muscle building, adding carbs to EAA’s shows no additional benefit.

Miller SL, Tipton KD, Chinkes DL, Wolf SE, Wolfe RR. Independent and combined effects of amino acids and glucose after resistance exercise.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2003 Mar;35(3):449-55.

Børsheim E, Tipton KD, Wolf SE, Wolfe RR.
Essential amino acids and muscle protein recovery from resistance exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Oct;283(4):E648-57.

BY: Athletic Edge Nutrition, The Nutrient Timing Specialists.

You’ve heard it many times before, that post-workout meal is one that you absolutely must be paying careful attention to if you want to get the most from your training.  Theoretically speaking, you can really have quite a bit of flexibility with the timing of your other meals during the day provided you’ve got that pre and post-workout meal set-up in place.

Really, these are the ones that need to strictly adhere to ‘timing rules’.

Now, that said, what difference do the actual macronutrients consumed have on the body during that post-workout period?

This is precisely what researchers out of the Virginia Commonwealth University set out to find.  They compared the rate of fat oxidation after a workout that consisted of eight different exercises, where each exercises consisted of three sets of ten reps and 60 seconds of rest in between each set.

Forty-five minutes after this exercise was completed, they consumed one of three different meals.

One group consumed a meal that was 37% fat, 18% protein, and 45% fat.

The second group consumed a meal that was 79% carbohydrate, 20% protein, and 1% fat.

Finally, the last group acted as a control and consumed just water.

Fat and carbohydrate oxidation rates were then determined every 15 minutes after the meal until 165 minutes had elapsed.

From these tests it was noted that there were no significant differences in regards to either fat or carbohydrate oxidation rates, but insulin and glucose concentrations were significantly higher following the meal that consisted of higher carbohydrates than that the consisted of mostly fat or the control group.

Therefore, from this study we can conclude that if you really suffer from large swings in blood sugar levels after eating carbohydrates, you may want to consider a post-workout meal that is slightly lower in carbohydrates and higher in fat.

Protein, however, must be present regardless of what you’re doing.

Do keep in mind though that in terms of maximum glycogen replenishment, high carb meals will be optimal, since fats do not move into the muscle tissue for muscle glycogen.

So, really it depends on the main goal you’re trying to achieve with this meal. Most people will do best with the typical high carb, moderate protein post workout shake, but a few individuals may want to experiment with other combinations, and will not need to worry too much that it will affect the rate of fat oxidation they experience.

Reference:
Bosher KJ. (2004) Effects of different macronutrient consumption following a resistance training session on fat and carbohydrate metabolism.   J Strength Cond Res. May; 18(2):212-9.

There are two kinds of people who smoke cigarettes: those you can’t read and those who don’t care. Films are full of virile, strong looking guys who always seem to have a cigarette in their mouths. More likely, these guys are skinny and wimpy.

A study from Copenhagen Muscle Research Center in Denmark found that smoking interferes with protein synthesis in muscle. They infused the amino acid leucine into smokers and non-smokers. The leucine contained a chemical marker so that the scientists could measure the rate the muscles made new proteins.

They also found that genes suppressing protein synthesis (ie. myostatin) were more active in smokers. Smoking interferes with muscle building and repair, which would make it more difficult to make training gains in weightlifting or to excel in sports.

Source: American Journal Physiology Endocrinology Metabolism, 293: E843-E848, 2007.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there a lot of real shitty fat burners out on the market. Ask yourself a question, have you ever taken anything worthwhile that was legal since the days of ephedra? Probably not. The reason being, most of the real good fat burners out there are illegal such as triiodothyronine (T3), ephedra, DNP, clenbuterol, etc. Well there is no doubt that some of the should be just for the mere fact there is always some idiot who doesn’t know how to follow directions right and screws it up for the rest of us.

Fortunately, research has forged on to provide us new insights into how to attack fat loss. One method is to increase uncoupling protein expression. There are three major uncoupling proteins in humans commonly referred to as UCP1, UCP2, and UCP3. In essence, increasing their expression in adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and the liver can greatly increase thermogenesis and help reduce unwanted fat. Please forgive me for the rather simplistic explanation of their mechanism of action. This is just a blog!

Researchers from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea studied the effect of Juniper Chinesis extract (JCE) on the adiposity of rats fed a high fat diet. What they found is that JCE greatly increased expression of UCP2 and UCP3 in brown adipose tissue (BAT), white adipose tissue (WAT), and also in skeletal muscle. This resulted in decreases in visceral adipose tissue (belly fat) as well as whole body fat storage. Not only that, but due to increased AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) expression which caused increases in carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1) activity. This is key because CPT1 is the rate limiting enzyme for mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation.

If I haven’t confused you by now then cool. However, if I did you are probably asking yourself, “What the heck does all that mean Dan?” In a nutshell, JCE proved to be quite effective at burning fat and limiting storage in the rat model. Could this translate into a solid ingredient for human use? Well we do know that low levels of uncoupling proteins are in part responsible for increases in metabolic syndrome clinical markers and also diabetes in humans. Increased expression of uncoupling proteins in humans does lead to decreases in adiposity by cranking up the mitochondrial engine. I don’t think it would be a leap of faith to hypothesize this extract could be useful humans.

Kim SJ, Jung JY, Kim HW, Park T. Anti-obesity effects of Juniperus chinensis extract are associated with increased AMP-activated protein kinase expression and phosphorylation in the visceral adipose tissue of rats. Biol Pharm Bull. 2008 Jul;31(7):1415-21.

Full text found here.

A collection of researchers have looked at the maximum stimulation of protein synthesis per sitting  and this entry is to review a few of these studies to get a better picture of the effective dose of amino-acids needed, to maximize muscle protein synthesis.

This first study being looked at, compared two mixtures of amino-acids given orally to human subjects. One mixture was 40g of both nonessential amino acids(NEAA’s), with its breakdown being 21.4g of EAA’s and 18.6g NEAA’s. The other mixture it was compared against to, was 40g of only EAA’s. What the researchers found was, that muscle protein synthesis was similar between the groups, which told us TWO primary things. One, the 18.6g of NEAA’s in the first mixture did not impact protein synthesis, it was just the EAA’s in the mixture responsible for eliciting the anabolic response. And TWO, the 40g of just EAA’s did not bring about a greater stimulus of protein synthesis than the 21.4g of EAA’s in the first mixture, showing 21g reached a ceiling effect or exceeded the maximum dose required.

Another study looked at  muscle protein synthesis in healthy adults and the elderly using various amounts of EAA’s, 5g-40g. Assuming most of us reading this are healthy adults, I will focus on just the results from that section. What was found was that the maximum stimulus of muscle protein synthesis was shown at 10g, with even 20g showing no greater stimulation.

Other studies have looked at the same thing and shown similar conclusion. Based off the current body of research data, it appears that 10-20g of EAA’s will bring about the maximum stimulus of protein synthesis per sitting.

Volpi E, Mittendorfer B, Rasmussen BB, Wolfe RR.
The response of muscle protein anabolism to combined hyperaminoacidemia and glucose-induced hyperinsulinemia is impaired in the elderly. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2000 Dec;85(12):4481-90

Børsheim E, Tipton KD, Wolf SE, Wolfe RR.
Essential amino acids and muscle protein recovery from resistance exercise.
Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Oct;283(4):E648-57.

BY: Athletic Edge Nutrition, The Nutrient Timing Specialists.

We all know that while training is important for promoting increases in our muscle strength and fitness ability, sleep is also critical.  Sleep is ‘primetime’ in terms of recovery for the body and if you’re not experiencing enough sleep or sleep that is of good quality, chances are you’re not making maximum gains from your training sessions.

That said, new research is proving that the type of sleep you get can be affected by the foods you’re eating.

Recently, researchers out of the University of Sydney, Australia looked at the effects low-carb diets had on sleep quality.

The study was designed so that two groups of non-obese men, 7 men in each group, were given two different diets – one that was low carb and another that was mixed in terms of macronutrients. Both diets contained 2400 calories and had matching evening test meals that were either mixed low-fat, higher carbohydrate meals (15.5% protein, 12.5% fat, and 72% carbohydrate) or very low carbohydrate meals (38% protein, 61% fat, and 1% protein).

During the study, sleep was recorded using a computerized sleep system.  During this time the urine ketone level was monitored with reagent strips both before the evening meals and right before bed to determine whether ketosis was present among the low carb group.  Blood glucose was also assessed with a glucometer before the evening meal and in the two hours following, and hunger was measured immediately after the bedtime meal was consumed.

After the study was completed, the results showed that the very low carb eaters had a much lower proportion of REM sleep (dream sleep) in comparison to the mixed group. In addition to this, the amount of slow wave sleep increased among those who were following the low carb diet, especially when in ketosis.

The researchers believed that these changes in the quality of sleep could be connected to the metabolism of dietary fat in comparison with carbohydrates.

Reference:
A***hi, A. et al.(2008)  Acute effects of the very low carbohydrate diet on sleep indices.  Discipline of Exercise and Sport Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, the University of Sydney, Sydney. New South Wales, Australia; School of Medicine, Qazvin University of Medical Science, Qazvin, Iran. Aug; 11(4):146-54.

The good guys at the British Journal of Sports Medicine have kindly taken the time to investigate how effective the hugely popular Nintendo Wii actually is for calorie expenditure. The new “Wii Fit” has also become hugely popular, marketed as a way to stay in shape and be healthy.

They used six boys and girls (13-15 years old) and had them play 15 minute bouts of Wii bowling, tennis and boxing while testing the energy expenditure. They then tested them playing the Xbox 360 – hopefully playing Call of Duty 4, because it’s awesome – and noted that active gaming burns more than 50% more calories.

So, will playing Wii get you ripped? No, don’t be silly. It only equates to an extra 60kcals burned per hour, so you’d probably need to quit your job and play for hours on end to compare it to going for a jog or lifting weights. That said, and as confirmed by the researchers, this is positive behaviour compared to sedentary gaming, and is certainly a step in the right direction given the current prevalence of childhood obesity and poor health.

Lee Graves, Gareth Stratton, N D Ridgers, N T Cable. Energy expenditure in adolescents playing new generation computer games. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008;42:592-594