Shannan’s Journey

Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

2 medium carrots, finely chopped

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 15 oz. cans black beans, drained

1 pinch cayenne pepper, chili powder, or chili seasoning mix

1 Tablespoon parsley, freshly chopped or dried flakes

Directions:

1. Saute the onions and garlic in oil in a large sauce pan.

2. Add carrots, tomatoes, herbs, spices, and beans.

3. Cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

Understanding the Fat Set-Point: 
Relative Bodyfat and Partitioning

In my previous series of articles, I talked about maximizing nutrient partitioning and the significance of insulin, adrenaline and site-specific fat.  One more factor that can really impact nutrient partitioning is how much bodyfat you currently carry, relative to how much you normally carry.

If you’ve ever dieted down to contest-lean levels, you’ve probably noticed how differently your metabolism, your body, and even your psychology function depending on the intensity of your diet and how much fat you lose. It’s generally much easier to lose fat at the beginning of a diet than it is when you’ve reached competition level leanness. As your body composition changes, so does your metabolism and the ease at which it loses fat and builds muscle. I call this the metabolic status.

The metabolic status refers to how well your metabolism and various positive hormonal measures are currently functioning, relative to how well they’re capable of functioning. It’s influenced by factors such as caloric intake, diet composition, meal timing, exercise, stress level, and sleep habits.

For athletes such as Figure competitors, however, the biggest factor is your fat set-point. This is your level of bodyfat relative to your "normal" or "comfortable" level of bodyfat. Think of it as your bodyfat thermostat. Generally, partitioning is better at lower bodyfat levels. Lean people tend to have higher relative metabolic rates, they respond with increased non-exercise activity thermogenesis when they increase calories, their appetites are more easily controlled, and they have better natural partitioning. When lean people gain weight, they tend to gain more muscle and less fat.

Fat people, on the other hand, tend to have lower relative metabolisms, their appetites are more difficult to control, their metabolisms respond with a decreased thermogenic response to increased calories, and their partitioning is worse — so when they gain weight they tend to gain more fat than muscle.
 
The benefits of being lean should be obvious. The one major caveat to this, however, is that there’s a big difference in the metabolic functioning and partitioning between someone who’s naturally lean, and someone who’s dieted down to be lean. Not understanding this difference is a big mistake when making dietary recommendations and observations of metabolic function.

Lean people who’ve had to diet to get there often have worse metabolisms than someone who’s naturally lean, and in many cases will have a metabolism even worse than a fat person’s. That is, their bodies are functioning in a manner that makes them more susceptible to weight gain.  A dieted-down lean individual won’t necessarily start piling fat back on without any excessive eating, but it’s more difficult for him or her to keep that lean body than someone who’s never had to diet to get lean.
 
As an adaptation to weight loss and dieting, a dieted-down lean person will have lower thyroid levels, lower HSL (which helps fat to release) activity, increased LPL (an enzyme which promotes fatty acid storage) activity,], a lower thermogenic response to increased calorie intake, and increased hyperinsulinemia. All these tend to either decrease energy expenditure, increase hunger, or make it easier to gain weight.

On the other hand, a naturally lean individual’s basal metabolic functions work in a way that makes it easy to stay lean: When they increase calories, their thermogenesis ramps up.

 Weight Loss and Partitioning-
When losing weight, the same partitioning dichotomy between fat and lean people exits, except in reverse. Here, fat people have a big advantage. A fat person will lose more fat and less muscle than a lean person, and can get away with larger caloric deficits. They can get away with more extreme dietary measures without any ill effect.

That’s why a person trying to go from 40% to 30% bodyfat can lose fat and actually gain muscle slurping down an 800-calorie-a-day liquid diet with barely enough protein to satisfy a pigeon, while a person trying to go from 12% to 8% could never do that without losing a lot of muscle in the process.

Understanding this is important in determining your optimal off-season bodyfat percentage and maintaining dietary and exercise habits that allow your metabolic status to be optimized most of the time. If you get too lean (for you), not only do you easily put on fat, but you’re also hungry all the time, moody, and cold. Get too fat (for you), and you start to get lazy, and partitioning takes a nose dive.
 
You might temporarily drop under your optimal range for a competition, or go up a bit during the holiday season, when all those goodies and family gatherings are unavoidable, but the key is to maintain a healthy range most of the time. So what’s an optimal range? This point will vary from person to person and accurately identifying this point is the specific topic of a later installment in this series; but for men, metabolism is generally considered pretty optimal around a DEXA measured level of 10% bodyfat or around 20% for most women.

Above 15-17% for men and 25-27% for women, and things start heading south.

About the Author
Jen Heath is an ACSM certified personal trainer, professional natural bodybuilder, and mother of four children. She runs a successful online coaching business, through which she helps women alter the course of their lives, and achieve the lean, muscular physiques they desire. You can also find her here.

Oprah’s Plight-

The media is alive today with advanced reports that the January issue of O magazine contains an interview with its namesake Oprah Winfrey in which she divulges that she has once again become obese. (here, here and here)
Apparently the queen of daytime TV (and my neighbor down the street) has ballooned up to 200 pounds.  And, if her statement on the cover of her magazine can be believed, she wonders how it happened. I’ve read a few of the articles, most of which quoted her from the advance copy of her January magazine.  As I read her quotes I realize that despite all her fame and wealth, she is basically just like any other middle-aged woman prone to obesity.  Let’s let her talk.
I’m mad at myself…

I’m embarrassed. I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?’

I was so frustrated I started eating whatever I wanted — and that’s never good.  I felt like a fat cow.  I wanted to disappear. I definitely wasn’t setting an example. I was talking the talk, but I wasn’t walking the walk. And that was very disappointing to me.  When it comes to maintaining my health I didn’t just fall off the wagon. I let the wagon fall on me. I didn’t follow my own fundamental rule of taking care of self first.

Sound familiar?

During my recent Photo food diary blog, a number of people commented that I had it easy because MD prepares all my food, as if the only reason I can stay thin is that someone waits on me hand and foot.  Well, Oprah has an entire staff to prepare whatever she wants whenever she wants it, and it hasn’t helped her.  Apparently all the money in the world and all the ability to hand pick any expert or consultant she might want to hire have not done the trick.  What’s the deal?
Why does Oprah have such a problem?

As you might imagine, I have a few thoughts on the matter.  According to Oprah’s biography, she was born to a poor single mother in rural Mississippi.  I would assume that her mother, like most poor rural people, consumed primarily a carb-based diet.  Why?  Carbs are cheap.  One of the reason poor people are fatter in general than well-off people, is that poor people eat a lot more carbs for budget reasons.  Another reason poor people are fatter is a little less known, but surely applies to Oprah.

When pregnant women load up on refined carbohydrates during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, they end up damaging the developing pancreas of the fetus.  The pancreas is pretty much developed during the first trimester, so a chronic high load of glucose in the mother’s blood that crosses the placenta ends up programming the fetal pancreas in much the same way that a huge chronic glucose load over a long time in adults creates insulin resistance.  This situation has been published about extensively in the medical literature.  The phenomenon is called fetal programming.  Babies born are basically  programed to become insulin resistant and obese.  These kids tend to develop obesity and insulin resistance more easily than others and have a tougher time dealing with it.  I’m sure that Oprah falls into this category.

Just like any adults who have glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and/or diabetes, these fetally-programmed people tend to do better on low-carbohydrate diets than on low-fat/high-carb diets.
The only diet Oprah really did well on was the Optifast diet, the one on which she lost 67 pounds and looked great.  The Optifast diet is the high-protein, low-fat, low-calorie diet that Oprah followed for four months.  She then appeared on her show in a pair of size 10 jeans.  The problem with the Optifast diet is that people who finish the program are encouraged to begin following a low-fat maintenance diet.  Many people lose a lot of weight on the diet, then turn around and go face down in all the food they’ve been denying themselves while they lost.  Oprah is no exception. She speaks of her experience after the show with the size 10 Calvin Kleins.

I had literally starved myself for four months — not a morsel of food. Two hours after that show, I started eating to celebrate — of course, within two days those jeans no longer fit!

The only Oprah Winfrey show I’ve ever seen is this very show.  She looked fabulous, which is usually the situation when people lose weight while getting plenty of protein.  Her face didn’t look gaunt.  She didn’t lose her muscular tone - she looked tight and healthy.  She obviously does well on a low-carb, high-protein diet.  She just needed to be on a different one, one for the long term.

For whatever reason, Oprah fought the idea of a low-carb diet for years.  Then, when she decided to go on a low-carb diet, she ended up selecting probably the worst low-carb diet she could have chosen: the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet (CAD).  For those who don’t know, the CAD recommends that people follow a strict low-carb diet all day, then allow themselves to eat all they want of anything they want for an hour - the so-called Reward Meal.  I didn’t see the show, but I was told by those who did that Oprah said that she liked macaroni and cheese and wondered if she could eat that on the diet.  The authors of the CAD responded that not only could she eat all the macaroni and cheese she wanted during her Reward Meal hour, but that she should throw in some apple pie for dessert. (If any readers of this blog saw that show and have a different remembrance, set me straight in the comments.) This kind of eating is the worst possible way of eating for those with insulin resistance.  And those people who try it usually fail because what appeals to them is the idea that they can eat all they want of whatever they want for an hour a day.

Many obese people do this same thing without calling it the CAD.  They wake up in the morning, skip breakfast and head to work.  Then they eat a salad for lunch.  By the time they get home, they are starving, so they eat everything that’s not red hot or nailed down, then promise themselves that they will do much better tomorrow.  Then repeat.

It’s no wonder Oprah failed on the CAD.  She probably ate 300 gm of carb per day along with everything else.  Problem is, she thought she was on a low-carb diet when she really wasn’t.  She then made the pronouncement that she had tried a low-carb diet and it hadn’t worked.  She tarred every low-carb diet with the CAD brush when she really didn’t try a low-carb diet at all.  In fact, the only time she tried anything approximating a low-carb diet was when she did the Optifast program, and those results spoke for themselves.  She could do the same thing now with a good quality, whole-food low-carb diet.  It may take a little longer than the four months it took her on Optifast, but she could stay on the program forever.  Just like I do.  You saw my food diary.  Did it look like I was denying myself a lot?

The second major problem that Oprah has is directly related to her fame and position.  Because she is who she is, she can have access to anyone she wants to have access to.  And she makes the same mistake all people in her position seem to make.  When she has a health problem, she turns to Harvard or some other big-name institution to get advice.  The problem with that is that all the people at Harvard and other big-name institutions are as mainstream as mainstream can get.  They are also far removed from patients care.  They haven’t had an original thought in years.  I would be willing to bet that yours truly has more first hand experience taking care of overweight middle-aged females than the entire faculty of Harvard and Yale put together.  But when Oprah (or any other celeb) has a problem, where does she turn?  To Mehmet Oz, Harvard grad, and a low-fatter of the deepest dye.

She tries low-fat, stays hungry, and as a consequence binges or at the very least eats a lot of stuff she shouldn’t be eating.  She is never going to win the battle against hunger because it can’t be won.  Sooner or later, she (and anyone else) will give in to hunger.  Fighting it is a losing battle.  On a true low-carb diet she a) wouldn’t be as hungry, and b) could eat something filling if she were.

But, unfortunately, she’s tied into all these low-fatters with the big school reputations and she’ll never gain control.  And, sadly, she’s taken the tack of the chronically overweight.  She’s ‘accepting’ her obesity. According to the reports
Winfrey also writes that her goal is no longer to be thin; instead, she wants to be strong, healthy and fit.  Uh huh.  I’m not trying to be sarcastic because I think the situation is pitiful.  Here is a beautiful, intelligent, creative, talented woman who is giving up on a relatively easy quest.  All her other accomplishments were much more difficult than losing weight, but she knew what she was doing.  For weight loss, however, she is listening to idiots.  And their advice is wrong.  And she hasn’t lost.  So she’s giving up.  It’s really sad.  Especially since one can’t really be fat and be healthy.  She’s fooling herself.  If she’s overweight, she’s got a metabolic problem that isn’t being dealt with.

Like many unsuccessful dieters, she is blaming her glands.  During the spring of 2007, Winfrey reported that she developed an underactive thyroid problem.  Controversially, Winfrey suggested that she had chosen diet and stress reduction as her thyroid treatment approach, and emphasized that her dietary regimen relied heavily on soy products, antithyroid goitrogens which are known to aggravate and worsen thyroid conditions in some people. Winfrey did an episode of her show with Dr. Christiane Northrup, during which she again controversially signed on to Northrup’s belief that thyroid problems develop in women who suffer an energy blockage in the throat region, and result from a lifetime of a woman’s ’swallowing’ words she wants to express. [Jesus wept. God help us all.] More recently, Winfrey reported that she was going on a several week vegan dietary “cleanse,” but the diet included tofu, tempeh, soy sausage, soy milk, soy yogurt, and soy products on the menu nearly every day, sometimes more than once.  Oprah did not report any weight loss on this diet. To date, Winfrey has not reported receiving any medical treatment, or taking any prescription medication, for her thyroid.

She may well have an underactive thyroid, which may mean that she needs nothing more than a little iodine.  Or she may need some thyroid hormone.  What she doesn’t need is soy and a vegan cleansing diet.  Her thyroid problem, if she has one, can be easily dealt with.  What may be more problematic are her sex hormones.  She will be 55 in late January of next year, so she’s either menopausal or peri-menopausal, and as such probably needs to have a hormonal workup and bioidentical hormones.

Oprah may have to work a little harder to overcome her fetal programming than others who may not have had her in utero experience, but it can be done.  She needs to have a hormonal workup, get things balanced hormonally, get her thyroid dealt with, and go on a quality whole food, low-carb diet.  If she were to do this, she could lose the weight she wants to lose and become healthy.  There’s really nothing much to it, but if keeps on relying on the people she’s relying on…  Well, she’ll keep getting the same results.  For her sake, I hate to see it happening.

Oprah is viewing her situation as a hopeless condition and is obviously despairing.  I view it as the same problem presented by thousands of overweight middle-aged women. As explained to them, it’s like any other problem.  It’s easy to solve if you have the knowledge and the right tools.  And as a lot of these people proved again and again, with the right knowledge and the right tools it can be done.

Hard training affects the status of a certain group of vitamins, collectively known as the B-complex family.

These vitamins are important for the proper metabolism of protein, carbohydrates, and fats; as well as for energy production. Research shows that if you’re deficient in B-vitamins, your physical performance will suffer. (1) So for optimum training and performance, you need a good supply of these nutrients, both from food and supplements. What follows is a look at specific B-vitamins and how they relate to training status. 

Thiamin (Vitamin B-1)
Found abundantly in brown rice and soybeans, thiamin is specifically involved in carbohydrate metabolism and nerve cell function. Men need 1.2 milligrams daily; women, 1.1. 

Higher doses (100 milligrams a day), however, may accelerate recovery from exercise-induced fatigue, according to researchers at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. They administered high-dose thiamin to a group of exercisers, and discovered that supplementation made the exercisers feel more energetic after completing a workout on the bicycle ergometer. (2) 

Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2)
This vitamin is found in whole grains, soybeans, and green leafy vegetables. It is involved in enzyme-controlled reactions that produce energy for the body. Riboflavin also protects the body from disease-causing free radical damage in the body. Men require 1.3 milligrams daily; women, 1.1. 

Bodybuilders, exercisers, and athletes must be sure to get ample amounts, however, because this nutrient is easily lost from the body, particularly in sweat. Exercise increases the body’s requirement for riboflavin. (3) 

Niacin (Vitamin B-3)
Besides its involvement in energy production, niacin plays a role in cholesterol and fat metabolism, which is why this nutrient is used therapeutically (as a prescription drug) to help lower cholesterol levels in the body. Food sources of niacin include legumes, whole grains, milk, eggs, and fish. If you’re deficient in this nutrient, you’re apt to suffer fatigue and muscular weakness. The recommended intake for niacin is at least 15 to 20 milligrams a day. 

Pyroxidine (Vitamin B-6)
Vitamin B6 influences nearly every system in the body. For example, it assists in: metabolizing fats, creating amino acids (the building blocks of protein), turning carbohydrates into glucose, producing neurotransmitters (brain chemicals that relay messages), and manufacturing antibodies to ward off infection. 

You’ll find this nutrient in a number of natural weight-loss supplements — for a couple of reasons. First, vitamin B6 helps maintain the balance of sodium and potassium in cells — a balance necessary to properly regulate fluids. Thus, vitamin B6 indirectly helps prevent water retention, a condition that can make you look and feel fat. Taking 100 mg of vitamin B6 one to three times a on a temporary basis is often recommended to reduce fluid build-up. Also, vitamin B6 helps regulate blood sugar. Swings in blood sugar can lead to food cravings and low energy. Finally, restrictive diets can deplete the body’s supply of vitamin B6, and supplementation is extra insurance against a deficiency. Clearly, this nutrient is a behind-the-scenes player in many issues related to weight management. 

As someone who is active, you’ll be interested in knowing that extra vitamin B6 can help boost endurance. Research has demonstrated that supplemental B6 may improve VO2 max, a measurement of the body’s ability to use oxygen. (4) 

Hard exercise can rob the body of this nutrient. German researchers discovered that a marathon race can cause a loss of 1 milligram of vitamin b6 from the body – nearly a full day’s requirement. (5) 

Eating a balance diet, however, guards against such deficiencies. The best food sources of vitamin B6 include salmon, Atlantic mackerel, white meat chicken, halibut, tuna, broccoli, lentils, and brown rice. The recommended intake for men is 1.7 milligrams a day; for women, 1.5 milligrams. 

B-12
Like other members of its family, this nutrient regulates many functions in the body. Among the most vital is the production of red blood cells. Vitamin B-12 directs this process, making sure that enough cells are manufactured. Without vitamin B-12, red blood cell production falls off, and the result is misshapen cells and anemia, which can sap energy. Vitamin B-12 can be obtained only from animal foods, including poultry, fish, eggs, and milk. The recommended daily intake is 2.4 milligrams. 

Biotin
This B-complex vitamin is required to activate specific enzymes involved in metabolism. Without it, the body can’t properly burn fats — which is why you so often find biotin as an ingredient in natural weight-loss products. Biotin also affects the body’s ability to properly metabolize blood sugar. In addition, biotin helps the body utilize protein. 

Although required in tiny amounts (30 mcg daily), biotin can be in short supply — for two reasons. First, the best sources of biotin in food are egg yolks and liver — two foods we tend to cut out because of their high concentration of cholesterol. 

Second, research verifies that active people often have lower levels of biotin than those who are sedentary. One theory is related to exercise. Exercising causes the waste product lactic acid to accumulate in working muscles. Biotin helps break down lactic acid. The more lactic acid that builds up in muscles, the more biotin that’s needed to break it down. If you’re a regular exerciser, supplementing with biotin — either through a multi-vitamin formula or lipotropic supplement such as our Advanced Lipotropic Formula — offers an extra measure of protection against a possible shortfall. (6) 

Choline
Present in all living cells, choline helps prevent the build-up of fat in the liver and helps move fat into cells to be burned for energy. Additionally, choline is involved in the metabolism of nutrients needed for building muscle tissue. 

Choline is found naturally in eggs, fish, soybeans, liver, brewer’s yeast, and wheat germ. A few years ago, choline was recognized as an essential nutrient. The recommended intake is 550 milligrams daily for men and 425 milligrams daily for women. 

Inositol
Inositol is involved primarily in making lecithin so that fat metabolism can proceed normally. Working together with choline, inositol helps prevent dangerous build-ups of fat in the arteries and keeps the liver, heart, and kidneys healthy. 

Your body can make inositol from glucose (blood sugar), and the nutrient is plentiful in whole grains. In fact, there is more inositol in the body than any other vitamin, with the exception of the B-vitamin niacin. Too much coffee can deplete your body’s reservoir of inositol. This nutrient is available from whole grains, citrus fruits, brewer’s yeast, and liver. You get about a gram of inositol daily from food. 

Pantothenic Acid
First recognized as a substance that stimulates growth, pantothenic acid is quite active in metabolism. It is a building block of CoA, a key enzyme that releases energy from foods. Pantothenic acid stimulates the adrenal glands and boosts production of hormones responsible for healthy skin and nerves. 

Foods rich in pantothenic acid include brewer’s yeast and whole grains. Cooking and food processing destroy up to 50 percent (sometimes more) of the vitamin. 

Pantothenic acid is so widespread in foods, however, that deficiencies are usually not a problem. In addition, the vitamin can be made in the body by intestinal bacteria. Many multi-vitamin supplements also contain pantothenic acid. The recommended daily intake for adults is 5 to 7 mg daily. 

Getting Enough B’s
In addition to the B-complex-rich foods mentioned above, supplementation is important for preventing possible shortfalls, particularly in bodybuilders and other athletes. Various supplements are fortified with these nutrients, so go get your supplements right now from bodybuilding.com or your local health store.

Anyone looking for some butt kicking in the gym with the holidays around or just some good old daily tush kicking, then I dare you to try this workout.  Good fun and I am sore as all heck… yes, my poor tush too !!! 

Go as heavy as you can… No puss’ing out or cheating on this one–

Workout 1

The dangers of diacetyl far outweigh the good, in fact there are no goods to this chemical additive found in butter flavoring for popcorn. A growing body of evidence had begun to point point to the chemical’s being a respiratory hazard to workers in the popcorn factories where the stuff pollutes the air, inspiring numerous law suits. At the time of that blog, the governmental powers that be were still holding firm that it if diacetyl caused the illness (it’s approved for use in flavors by the FDA, after all) it constituted a workplace exposure problem and didn’t appear to pose a risk to consumers.

Comes now the article by AP journalist Marcus Kabel (and picked up on every news agency from Fox to CNN) of a consumer who has developed ‘popcorn lung‘ from breathing in the diacetyl-laced fumes of microwave buttered popcorn several times a day for years.

Stop and think about that last paragraph… this gentleman popped (and presumably did not just sniff, but ate) several bags of butter-flavored microwave popped corn every day for years. One assumes it’s not all he ate, though it could have been. With an average of 3 servings of corn in a microwave bag, at an average of 25 grams of usable carb per bag, eating “several bags a day” of popcorn constitutes a whole lot of corn starch– about 75 grams worth, minimum. That, all by itself, is about double the daily total effective carb intake for people trying to lose weight or regain health on a low carb diet. Heck, it’s more than the total carb intake for most people trying to just maintain health and weight in a carb conscious lifestyle, all taken up by very antigenically active (read that potentially damaging) corn starch, leaving no room for any other source of carb.

This whole diacetyl thing makes for just one more reason a low carb diet is healthier than a low fat one. No one following a low carb diet would have ever been so exposed to this particular toxic compound, because no one on a low carb diet would ever dream of eating 9 servings of popcorn a day.

That’s not to say that every now and then, it’s not a treat to curl up on the couch with a good movie and some hot buttered popcorn. The key is that it should always be a treat and should never be hot ‘butter-flavored, low-fat’ popcorn.

If the mood for popcorn strikes you, do it safely. Here’s a link to a recipe for making your own diacetyl-free microwave popcorn, with a brown bag, popping corn, salt, and oil. I’d use coconut oil, personally, and then top it with melted real butter or try melting the butter, mixing the unpopped corn with that and microwaving in the bag.

Do not fail to note that the recipe makes 3 servings and the whole bag contains 24.6 grams of total carb with 4.9 grams of it as fiber, so an ECC of 19.7 grams. Each serving is 6.5 grams, which is totally doable as a snack.
So if the mood strikes, curl up with a good movie (or football game) this weekend and split a bag with a friend…or two.

Posted in Training