Why Calories Do Not Count – Part I

You all know who Yao Ming is.  Yao is HUGE – 7’6” and 310lbs.  To get that big Yao definitely had to overeat, overeat and overeat some more.

Here is the important question:  Did he grow that much because he overate, or did he overeat because he was growing that much? (this is NOT semantics)

Ask any obesity researcher, “could you become Yao’s size if you just ate as much as he did?”

They will answer, “No, it was the growth hormone in his body that made him grow that big.”

Ask that same obesity researcher what happened to this 300 pound man:

And you will get a very different response, “he eats too much and exercises too little and he kept it up for a very long time.”

Yao is 310 pounds and he DEFINITELY overate.

The chubby umpire is 300+ pounds and he definitely overate.

But we blame Yao’s overeating on his growth hormone, and the chubby umpire’s overeating on his willpower – in other words he has a character defect that made him grow.

Let’ sum this up:

•    Vertical growth is under the control of hormones (growth hormone)
•    Horizontal growth (fat cells) grow as a result of a character defect (you have no will power, and you eat too much and move too little)

Does that make any sense?

Does that sound like I am contradicting my previous post “Do Fat People Really Eat More?”.  Stay tuned and I will explain.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

What’s Up With Red Meat? (More Crap “Science”)

It seems like one of the media’s most cherished pastimes is to run around promoting crap science as some kind of new breakthrough.  It really doesn’t look like anyone reporting on this stuff can take 5min to ask themselves thing like, “does this even make any sense? Is this even well done science?” before they go around blabbering about new “facts.”

Case in point, there is a new study out claiming to prove that “eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely.”  This is another piece of junk science.  The authors should be ashamed of themselves for the claims that they are making, but instead they are on CNN.

Major Issues That I See:

#1. NO CAUSE AND EFFECT WHATSOEVER: If you read the interviews of people associated with this study they say thing like, “This is a slam-dunk to say that, ‘Yes, indeed, if people want to be healthy and live longer, consume less red and processed meat’ ” as Barry M. Popkin did.  In other words they are saying that this study establishes a cause and effect – eating red meat causes bad stuff.

REALLY!?

In science there is this rule that says, association (especially with low quality data) is NOT causation.  Here’s an ice cream metaphor:

In the summer ice cream consumption goes up.  In the summer time murder also goes up.  So there IS a positive association between ice cream consumption and murder to be sure.  However, do you think that it makes any sense to go around claiming that ice cream causes the murder rate to go up in the summer time?

This is EXACTLY what the authors of this study did, and they are on CNN.

If you want to establish cause and effect then you need to do an intervention study – you need to intervene in people’s lives and see what happens.  In the ice cream scenario you would need to feed people extra ice cream and see if they then go on shooting sprees.  BUT, you actually have to do that research BEFORE you go around claiming that ice cream is a killer and recommending that people avoid ice cream and the people who eat it.

In the case of red meat and mortality, then you need to take a bunch of people and intervene in their diets and see what happens before you can go around making cause and effect claims

Oh, and we’ve  done the intervention studies MANY times.  We’ve had people eat less saturated fat and cholesterol and MORTALITY GOES UP, not down!

#2. Relying on memory: This study used something called a “food frequency questionnaire” (FFQ) to determine people’s intake of red meat.  We worked with FFQ’s in my nutrition classes last semester at UMD.  They suck!

Here’s why:  An FFQ is a VERY long (so boring) questionnaire about what you eat, how often and in what quantities over the past 6-12 MONTHS!  I am in my late 20’s and pay more attention to what I eat on a daily basis than almost anyone I know, and I could not answer the questions on the FFQ accurately.  (The people in this study were between 50 and 71.)  On most of the questions of my FFQ I was just guessing – I have no idea how many ounces of cantaloupe I ate per week over the past 12 months.  The questions are completely ridiculous.

I don’t know how the researchers could take the info from a bunch of FFQ’s seriously – its just 545,000 guesses.

Consider this another installment of “don’t trust the media to check scientific facts for you!”

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

Really Good News!!!

I don’t know if you all remember that study from a week or two ago that claimed to have solved the “low-carb vs. low-fat debate”, but I was incensed with the fact that it was a horrible piece of “research” and nobody in the media actually took the 15min to read the “study.”

After many, many hours, press releases, submissions, phone calls, etc.  I had some real, meaningful success in getting an alternative point of view out there in two major publications (in addition to many smaller ones):

Here is the full text of what was in the Post:

The Truth About Splenda Part III – The Twist!

Its time to finally complete the 3 part Splenda series that I started the day before Valentine’s day.

If you missed part I or part II, check them out.

The Final Two Verdicts

#5.  Splenda has chlorine in it, and since chlorine is poisonous, Splenda must be poisonous.

Uh, your body has chlorine in it.  You’d be dead without it.  There are a LOT of very important things that go in your body that absolutely require chlorine!  Chlorine is in just about everything you eat every day and has been since food was invented.

They might be talking about elemental chlorine – like chlorine gas.   Chlorine gas is deadly and toxic.  You aren’t really going to get that off of a molecule of sucralose.   I’ve got to take you back to chemistry class again – sorry.

In chemistry the strongest bonds are “covalent” bonds, those are the bonds that are drawn with the straight lines between the black balls and the green balls.  That means that those two atoms are sharing a pair of electrons, so that bond will not be broken in your digestive system.

6.  Splenda is a no calorie sweetener and will not raise blood sugar or insulin levels.  (You’ll be surprised about the REAL answer to this one.)

The answer here is NO!  Actually a tablespoon of Splenda has 6 calories in it and its all carbs!  Splenda is so sweet that the amount needed to sweeten a cup of coffee could not fall out of a package – its just too small.  They have to put it into a carrier.  In this case they use maltodextrin.

It is still better than sugar.  A tablespoon of sugar has 46 calories and 800% more carbs.  But, go easy.  I know a lot of people trying to be low-carb who put mountains on their food.  A normal amount is OK, but a mountain on your yogurt or coffee is too much.  It defeats the purpose.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

$60 or $2,699? The Cheaper, More Fun Home Interval Workout

Time has become really, really tight for me lately.  With the new book, new web sites, the new CD-club, new writing gigs, a rapidly expanding training business, etc I am finding it very, very, very difficult to get all of my workouts in.  This is funny because I work at a gym 5 days per week and specialize in time efficient workouts.

At this point in my life I am not able to spare the time to walk or drive to the gym, go do my intervals, then walk or drive home.  Can’t do it.  I’m just too busy, or I’m just not up to it at the end of a 16 or 18 hour day.  HOWEVER, I am NOT one to let something like that get in the way of me being super fit.  Necessity is the mother of adaptation, so I adapted!  (This is what I meant by resourcefulness.)

Here’s what I’m doing now:

#1.  I bought a kettlebell (KB) from here.

By the way this place has THE best prices for quality products AND the fastest, least expensive shipping of any place that I found.  I bought my mother a 12kg KB for Christmas for $60 + shipping.  Shipping was a LOT, but I love my mommy.

It turns out that I could have gotten my mom’s KB for just $39 at this place.  I actually bought myself a 24kg (twice as much weight) KB for the same price as my mom’s and the shipping was the same!  I won’t be buying from that other place again!

#2.  I bought DVD’s from Target (yes, Target!) and from Perform Better. (I like the Art of Strength DVD’s that they carry.)  I go to town at home for 20min and I am completely done.  Now my “commute” is right down the hall from my office, and I can do it midday when I have more energy.  And, I get a BETTER workout that’s actually more fun, and has unlimited variety!

The Not-So-Good Alternative

This home elliptical trainer has an MSRP of $2,699!  And would devour my living room!  No good option.  Plus you can only do ONE thing on it.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

So What’s Your Excuse?

I’ve been waiting to drop this one until I didn’t have anything else to talk about:-).

This is Josh Sundquist, and he can squat 225 on one leg.  Not one leg as in a pistol squat, but one leg ‘cause that’s all he has!

There really is only one point of this post:  whatever is going on in your life, you can find somebody else who has far less than you, but is still getting more out of their limited resources than you.  (When I say “you” I mean plural to include ME!)  And that means that all of your excuses don’t really matter because someone who has been given less in life is making it happen, so you can too.

Its resourcefulness, not resources that determine your results, and nowhere is that more true than with your fitness.

Note that I said “resourcefulness” not iron-will power.  The first is being clever and flexible on the means by which you arrive at your destination, but very firm on the destination.  The second is mostly just a recipe for disappointment.  More about that next week.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

Barbie Turns 50: 5 Ways To Have a Barbie Body When You’re 50 Too

Barbie turned 50 on Monday, and she’s still turning heads. Many women think that turning 50 is the end of their life as “hot.” Washington, DC personal trainer Josef Brandenburg says, “Any woman can have a great body into her 50’s.”

Finish reading this press release right here for free.

A Pound of Muscle Does NOT Weigh More Than A Pound of Fat

Q: Does a pound of muscle weigh more than a pound of fat? I know it has something to do with density. It sounds like a trick? Give me your best short answer.

A: First of all, this is one of the most concise questions I have ever received.  I didn’t have to edit it all to get an answerable questions.

A pound of muscle doe NOT weigh more than a pound of fat.  They both weight one pound each.  A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead.

HOWEVER, what I think you really want to know is if muscle is DENSER than fat.  It is much denser in clothing terms.

Beach Ball or Baseball?

Which would you rather be?

Muscle  = 1.06 g/ml
Fat = 0.9 g/ml

So muscle is 18% denser than fat.  So, if you traded all of your fat for muscle you would take up 18% less space in your clothes – a very BIG difference.  Actually in clothing terms this would  be more than 18% because fat and muscle sit in different places on your body.

Its entirely possible to drop clothing sizes without a change on the scale or with weight gain.

While you can’t trade out all of your body fat for muscle, you can trade a lot of it.

You Can Weigh Less, But Get Fatter

You can also do the opposite.  Get bigger and squishier while getting lighter on the scale.  In fact, I know someone who just completed an 800 calorie per day liquid diet who is lighter then when she started, but also a lot bigger too.  She did drop fat initially, but the body adapts to starvation by spending less energy and getting better at being fat, so the long-term results are just the opposite of what she wanted – less muscle and more fat, and a much harder time dropping body fat in the future.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

What Is Body Fat? Its NOT What You Think (nothing to do with calories)!

Ask anyone – lay or health professional, and they will say “3,500 extra calories on my ass [or stomach depending on the gender]!”

That’s not really true.

The Real Deal on Body Fat

Technically speaking body-fat is made of triglycerides.

There’s the backbone – a molecule of glycerol (red), and then there are the three fatty acids attached (hence the “tri”).

You’ve ALWAYS got free fatty acids in your blood stream, BUT you CAN’T turn then into body-fat without the glycerol*.  Otherwise you just have free fatty acids ready to be used as fuel.

The only place to get your body-fat backbone (glycerol) is from carbohydrates – fructose and glucose.  For each molecule you get 2 new backbones.  In other words, you CAN’T make body-fat with carbohydrates, no matter how much you eat. And you can also make body-fat while in a calorie deficit if you have enough insulin and glycerol floating around inside of you.

So, again, its what you eat, not how much you eat that matters.  If you make the right food choices, the quantity will take care of itself.

Oh, no I am not suggesting that fruit is evil because it contains fructose.  That’s actually a misnomer.  Its called fructose (“fruit sugar”) because we first found it in fruit, but fruit is NOT a very good source of fructose.  You need refined carbs like table sugar, juice, high fructose corn syrup, etc. to really load up on fructose.  The only fruits that are somewhat high are bananas and grapes.

*If you want to be more technical you need glycerol-3-phosphate, but that’s beyond the scope of the blog.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

A Few Small Victories

So there have been a small victory’s to come out of my press release last week (The New Weight Loss Study is WRONG!):

1. so far 800 people have read it (not just seen it)
2. it was picked up by at least one newspaper, The Charleston Daily Mail
3. it was picked up by the Metabolism Society for their website
4. it got me an interview with Jimmy Moore on Livin’ La Vida Low Carb

So, I am very happy about that.  However, I am EXTREMELY dissapointed with the fact that major news papers like The Washington Post, The New York Times, etc. are printing the BS study as actual fact or science.  It appears as if they did no independent fact checking – it looks like they just ran with the story as the authors presented it to them.

I sent my press release to every single person in the Wash Post Health section, wrote op-eds for multiple papers, got it distributed by AP and so far the other BS story is still running with no competition.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To fin out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.