Inside the Mind of Deserusan

Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably noticed that food prices are on the rise and have been over the past year or so. This has affected everything from whey protein prices to even the costs of diet soda. Basically, the culprit responsible for this is rising fuel costs because all of these items need to be transported to their given retail outlets as do the materials from raw materials sources to the manufacturing plants. I’m sure many of you here on Bodybuilding.com have certainly noticed those whey prices creep up dramatically and aren’t too happy about it.

Being a bodybuilder like myself or even just someone who is trying to eat healthy by staying away from foods high preservatives you probably know that a trip to the grocery store is not cheap. Organic foods are always more expensive and trying to maintain a high protein diet using real animal meats certainly costs more than frozen chicken nuggets or fish sticks. Also, if you are a bodybuilder your caloric requirement probably has you eating close to double what a normal person would eat and you do it consistently day in and day out.

The reason I’m bringing all of this up is to not depress you guys into saying **** it pass the Doritos. I’m not sure if you have these in your area but Trader Joe’s is a godsend to anyone trying buy healthy foods in a frugal manner. Last year food prices rose about 4% according the USDA and are expected to increase about the same this year so hopefully a Trader Joe’s pops in your area soon.

Trader Joe’s reminds me a bit of Whole Foods Market minus the ridiculous prices. There are many items a typical supermarket wouldn’t carry. My daily diet is pretty bland consisting of 24 egg whites split over two meals, 1 pound of 96% lean ground beef split over two meals, 1 pound of chicken breast split over two meals, a couple cups of oats and whole wheat pasta as carb sources, with some protein powders and waxy maize starch as well. I also add some broccoli and asparagus to a few of those meals bringing the total to about 8 per day. However, I do get creative when it comes to adding things like cashew macadamia nut butter on my chicken breast or adding assorted frozen berries to my morning oatmeal. That’s the thing, Trader Joe’s has great prices on poultry and an amazing assortment of atypical gourmet food items to brighten up the boring diet of the fitness enthusiast.

If you have the chance, my suggestion is to check the Trade Joe’s website and see if one is coming to your area or if one already exists. If so then you are in for a real treat. My only criticism for Trader Joe’s is their lack of produce. However, for the prices they offer on everything else, they are still my favorite place to buy most food items these days.

As you delve into the world of muscle building and fitness you often come across stark contrasts with current medical opinion. Those who tend to push the envelope on the competitive side as they ascend through to the professional ranks often look great, but epitomize what it means to be unhealthy. It’s just the way it is. However, most of us exist somewhere in the mediocrity and do indeed live a healthy and fit lifestyle.

One tool the medical world has used to assess obesity is the Body Mass Index, or more commonly referred to as BMI. According to the Center for Disease Control & Prevention BMI is defined as “a number calculated from a person’s weight and height. BMI is a reliable indicator of body fatness for people. BMI does not measure body fat directly, but research has shown that BMI correlates to direct measures of body fat, such as underwater weighing and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA).^{1, 2} BMI can be considered an alternative for direct measures of body fat. Additionally, BMI is an inexpensive and easy-to-perform method of screening for weight categories that may lead to health problems.”

Now for many of you fitness enthusiasts out there including myself, you will notice that your BMI actually falls into what is considered the obese range. I first stumbled upon this a few years back when BMI was getting a lot of press and thought to myself this really isn’t accurate. What if you have a high amount of lean body mass? For someone carrying more muscle mass than the “average” adult they will judged as obese through this ranking system. Even worse, what if my health insurance gives me higher premiums or I’m designated as a higher risk for obesity related ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, etc?

This was obviously very disheartening but fortunately a recent study published in the International Journal of Obesity has shed some light on this conundrum. They clearly state that the BMI rankings has severe limitations in both sexes and doesn’t accurately describe the relative obesity in severely obese subjects either. Thankfully, a well respected journal has gone against the grain of popular medical opinion to bring these truths to light. If you feel you or your children have been diagnosed with a high BMI without just cause please present the following citation to them. After all, life is a never ending learning process and those of living the fitness lifestyle certainly are not AVERAGE.

Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Feb 19

Accuracy of body mass index in diagnosing obesity in the adult general population.

Romero-Corral A, Somers VK, Sierra-Johnson J, Thomas RJ, Collazo-Clavell ML, Korinek J, Allison TG, Batsis JA, Sert-Kuniyoshi FH, Lopez-Jimenez F.

1Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, MN, USA.

Background: Body mass index (BMI) is the most widely used measure to diagnose obesity. However, the accuracy of BMI in detecting excess body adiposity in the adult general population is largely unknown.Methods: A cross-sectional design of 13 601 subjects (age 20-79.9 years; 49% men) from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Bioelectrical impedance analysis was used to estimate body fat percent (BF%). We assessed the diagnostic performance of BMI using the World Health Organization reference standard for obesity of BF%>25% in men and>35% in women. We tested the correlation between BMI and both BF% and lean mass by sex and age groups adjusted for race.Results: BMI-defined obesity (>/=30 kg m(-2)) was present in 19.1% of men and 24.7% of women, while BF%-defined obesity was present in 43.9% of men and 52.3% of women. A BMI>/=30 had a high specificity (men=95%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 94-96 and women=99%, 95% CI, 98-100), but a poor sensitivity (men=36%, 95% CI, 35-37 and women=49%, 95% CI, 48-50) to detect BF%-defined obesity. The diagnostic performance of BMI diminished as age increased. In men, BMI had a better correlation with lean mass than with BF%, while in women BMI correlated better with BF% than with lean mass. However, in the intermediate range of BMI (25-29.9 kg m(-2)), BMI failed to discriminate between BF% and lean mass in both sexes.Conclusions: The accuracy of BMI in diagnosing obesity is limited, particularly for individuals in the intermediate BMI ranges, in men and in the elderly. A BMI cutoff of>/=30 kg m(-2) has good specificity but misses more than half of people with excess fat. These results may help to explain the unexpected better survival in overweight/mild obese patients.

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