got all my meals prepared for the week... :D

mhmm...

You see it all the time in the gym.  I call them "Chronic-Crunchers".  People with larger mid-sections toiling away doing crunches, reverse crunches, ab twists, and a plethora of various ab exercises.  Yet their tummies never get smaller. (Some of them even get bigger!)

Abs are made in the kitchen.  If your diet isn't on point, you will never see that 6-pack.  Instead of wasting their time doing set after set of ab exercises they would be better off tightening up their diet or even doing some cardio.

There was a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in September 2011 which examined the effect of ab exercise on abdominal fat.  Twenty-four healthy, sedentary adults between the ages of 18 and 40 were split into two groups: a control group and an abdominal exercise group.  For 6 weeks the abdominal exercise group was instructed to do ab exercises 5 times a week.  The workout was 7 exercises, 2 sets of each with 10 reps.  The control group did no ab training.

At the end of 6 weeks the ab exercise group showed no significant changes in: body weight; body fat percentage; fat around the abdomen, chest, shoulders, neck and back;
abdominal circumference; abdominal skinfold and suprailiac skinfold measurements.  The only improvement was in the amount of ab curls the ab exercise group could do compared to the control group.

The researchers concluded:

"Abdominal exercise training was effective to increase abdominal strength
but was not effective to decrease various measures of abdominal fat."

So ya, if you're looking for a 6-pack, start by cleaning up your diet or adding in some cardio.

Here's the link to the abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21804427

The Grapefruit Diet has been talked about and touted for years.  I even remember my mom going on this diet when I was a kid.  The question is: does it work?

There is a study published in 2006 which examined the effects of grapefruit on weight and insulin resistance.  The study was done at Scripps Clinic here in La Jolla, CA.  For 12 weeks, 91 obese patients were randomized to take:

• placebo capsules and 7oz. of apple juice
  
• grapefruit capsules and 7oz. of apple juice
  
• placebo capsules and 8oz. of grapefruit juice
  
• placebo capsule and half of a fresh grapefruit
  

There were no changes to their daily diets other than the addition of the grapefruit or grapefruit juice.

At the end of 12 weeks, the fresh grapefruit group had lost 3.5 pounds, the grapefruit juice group lost 3.3 pounds, the grapefruit capsule group lost 2.4 pounds, and the placebo group had lost 0.7 pounds.  There was also a significant reduction in 2 hour post insulin level in the grapefruit group compared with placebo.  Insulin resistance was improved with fresh grapefruit.

Interesting, eh??

Here's a link to the abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16579728

*sigh* this makes dieting the whole week worth it...

i get 2 more of these meals, then some fast food for dinner! :D

then it's back to the diet on monday!

hope you're having a good weekend!

ttfn!

xo.

If you're looking for a myostatin blocker it may already be sitting on your shelf!

But before we get to that... What is myostatin??

From wikipedia:

Myostatin ( also known as growth differentiation factor 8, abbreviated "GDF8" ) is a secreted TGF beta protein family member that inhibits muscle differentiation and growth. Myostatin is produced primarily in skeletal muscle cells, circulates in the blood and acts on muscle tissue, by binding a cell-bound receptor called the activin type II receptor.  In humans, myostatin is encoded by the MSTN gene.

Animals lacking myostatin or animals treated with substances such as follistatin that block the binding of myostatin to its receptor have significantly larger muscles. Thus, reduction of myostatin could potentially benefit the livestock industry, with even a 20 percent reduction in myostatin levels potentially having a large effect on the development of muscles.


So, in layman's terms:  Myostatin is protein produced by the body which restrains muscle growth, ensuring that muscles do not grow too large.

Hmm, not a very friendly substance for someone wanting to increase their muscle mass, eh? :/

Now, resistance training in itself will lower myostatin.  But take a look at this study published in 2010.  It examined the effect of resistance training plus supplementation of oral creatine on myostatin and GASP-1 levels.  GASP-1 is a protein that neutralizes myostatin.  Here's what they found: "Creatine supplementation in conjunction with resistance training lead to greater decreases in serum myostatin (p<0.05), but had not additional effect on GASP-1 (p>0.05). The effects of resistance training on serum levels of myostatin and GASP-1, may explain the increased muscle mass that is amplified by creatine supplementation."

So, why aren't you supplementing with creatine again?

You can read the whole abstract here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20026378

:D

a bird shat on my hood.

it's supposed to rain tomorrow.
should i wash my car??

:D

this is how many pills i take everyday:

:D

fruit may be "healthy" for you, but too much fructose from fruit or other highly processed foods will cause you to gain fat!

from http://www.rejuvenation-science.com/n_hfcs-fat.html:

"Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition and lead author of a study appearing in the Journal of Nutrition, said her team's findings suggest that the right type of carbohydrates a person eats may be just as important in weight control as the number of calories a person eats.

Current health guidelines suggest that limiting processed carbohydrates, many of which contain high-fructose corn syrup, may help prevent weight gain, and the new data on fructose clearly support this recommendation.

"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," Dr. Parks said. Fructose, glucose and sucrose, which is a mixture of fructose and glucose, are all forms of sugar but are metabolized differently.

"All three can be made into triglycerides, a form of body fat; however, once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down," she said."

here's a link to the abstract:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18492831?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

from charlespoliquin.com:

"did you know that aerobic exercise increases oxidative stress,
chronically elevates cortisol, and has been shown to lower testosterone
levels in men. Even more concerning, intense aerobic exercise in animals
decreases reproductive organ size and function, while lowering
androgens and causing extreme oxidative stress!"

read the full article here: http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/728/The_%28Many%29_Negatives_of_Aerobic_Training.aspx