Josef Brandenburg’s Article is “Retarded”

I had a interview that I did with Gary Taubes published on T-nation yesterday and here are a few of my favorite comments:

“This whole article is retarded… Look into a little something called ASP”

“This sh*t should be pulled from the site. Can’t t-nation/muscle/mag get a decent science editor?”

“Man this is so wrong on so many different levels.

“Anyone who buys into Taubes’ bullsh*t is clearly too feeble minded to grasp any rational argument to the contrary… What Tuabes and the rest of the low-carb community don’t like talking about is a little compound called acylation stimulation protein (ASP) which stores dietary fat in the fat cell with ZERO rise in insulin levels.”

“I agree that this article is completely retarded.”

“People like Josef Brandenburg who make ridiculous statements about eating all you want.”  (I really like this one because he spelled out my first and last name correctly.  You’re not important until you get trashed on an internet forum!)

So a lot of the criticism (a lot more than listed here) was aimed at the fact that ASP was left out of the interview, because the claim is that with ASP you can make fat without insulin and that is the “nail in the coffin” for low-carb.

So, What’s Up With ASP?

ASP (Acylation stimulating protein) definitely does regulate body-fat, if you have more then you’ll store more fat.  But, if you dig just a little deeper you’ll find this:

#1. Insulin increases ASP production 2 fold

http://www.jlr.org/…/reprint/38/1/1

J Lipid Res. 1997 Jan;38(1):1-11

#2. “ASP… secretion is regulated by insulin”

Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2001 Jun;21(6):1034-9

http://atvb.ahajournals.org/…/full/21/6/1034

So, ASP seems to be related to insulin.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer 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. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

What If Marion Barry Was a Nutritionist? Do What I Say, Not What I Do – But In Reverse

When I lived in LA I hired a nutritionist who worked at The Sports Club LA.  Let’s call her “Pam.”  When I came to Pam I was trying to get just a little bit leaner.  I was in pretty good shape, and had gotten that way by – surprise – eating fewer carbs and more protein, etc.

When she found out that my diet was pretty much devoid of bread and pasta she pretty much flipped and told me that I would never get any leaner with such a low carb intake.  She made a very compelling argument for getting my starch intake in the 6-11 servings per day neighborhood (just like in the food pyramid).  I told her that I thought this would plump me up, but she insisted that I do it her way.

So, I added oatmeal in the morning, whole wheat pasta elsewhere, and brown rice somewhere.  I also cut back on my protein and fat intake because she said they were too high, and that I needed to take in fewer calories.  Results:

#1.  I got fatter
#2.  I got weaker
#3.  My energy went in the toilet
#4.  My eczema came back

My rational mind thought, “this just isn’t working, these carbs are making me fat.”  But my emotional mind thought, “she’s the RD, it your fault that you’re getting fat.”

At some point we were having a conversation and she said, “Oh, I don’t eat carbs” as an offhand remark.

She was in her 40’s and looked fantastic.  I was in my 20’s and looking worse!

Why was she giving me advice that was exactly the opposite of how she lived?

As a dietetics major (to get and RD) I have had similar conversations with many classmates.  On exams, in papers, in class and lab they all espouse high-carb, low-fat diets for everything from weight-loss to diabetes. BUT when it comes to taking care of their own bodies and extra body-fat they mostly blame carbs.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer 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. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

How Do You Make A Gladiator Fat on Demand?

According to Archeology magazine (by the Archeological Institute of America), it turns out that Gladiators were actually fat. They were fat on purpose:

“A fat cushion protects you from cut wounds and shields nerves and blood vessels in a fight.” Not only would a lean gladiator have been dead meat, he would have made for a bad show. Surface wounds “look more spectacular,” says Grossschmidt. “If I get wounded but just in the fatty layer, I can fight on,” he adds. “It doesn’t hurt much, and it looks great for the spectators.”

How Did They Get Fat (In spite of being VERY physically active)?

“A vegetarian diet rich in carbohydrates… and very little animal protein… Packing in the carbs also packed on the pounds.”

You can read the whole article right here.

Sumo Wrestlers AND Gladiators Have a Lot In Common

This sounds an awful lot like what the Sumo did when they wanted to get fat on purpose – cut back on the animal protein and pack in the carbs.

It is ironic that this is the same advice that we get from the food pyramid. Is that designed to make people fat too?

Low fat, and therefore high carb nutrition became dogma in the late 70’s, early 80’s, exactly when the obesity epidemic started.  Coincidence?

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer 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. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

The Secret Weapon in Creating The Body You Want

Most people let their thinking absolutely destroy them and their chances of ever creating the body they really want.  To make that even worse very few people are even aware of what the process of thinking actually is, so they have no place to go to make effective changes.

The good news is that the solution is actually quite simple:

Thinking is nothing more than the process of asking and answering questions.  Think about it, you just asked yourself a question about that statement I made… “is that true?”

With questions you can find any answer that you are looking for, or as the Bible says, “seek and ye shall find.”  The problem is that most of the time we are unconscious about the questions we ask – we simply ask them out of habit or despair.

So, if you ask yourself a question like, “why am I so fat?” or “why can’t I lose weight?” you WILL get an answer.  The problem is that there really aren’t any USEFUL answers to
those questions.

It doesn’t matter if the presupposition in your question is accurate or not, your brain will find an answer.  In the above you presupposed that:

#1.  You are a fat person (different than being a person with extra body-fat on them.  No, that is not just semantics – one is a temporary condition, the other is the identity that you have for yourself.  One of THE most powerful forces in the human personality IS the need to stay consistent with your identity.)

#2.  You can’t lose weight

By the way, your presuppositions are WRONG.

These are poor questions, but your brain will absolutely give you an answer anyway.  Unfortunately, the only answers to that question are self-defeating like:

• “because I have bad genetics”
• ”because I don’t have the time”
• ”because my parents treated me with junk food so now I love it”
• ”because I’m a big, fat slob who doesn’t have any self-discipline”
• “I don’t know, but there’s no point in working out”

Or something to that effect.

It turns out that what you REALLY wanted to know was:

“How can I drop a lot of body fat really fast, do that without being hungry, while increasing my energy levels and do it in a way that actually fits my schedule and while eating food that tastes good?”

That’s a question that has a VERY useful answer.

The same thing goes for life and fitness overall.  Asking yourself
questions like:

• Why can’t I eat French fries, everyone else is [in a whiny voice, of course]?
• Why do I keep screwing up?
• Why does _______ suck?

These questions can only yield answers that will make you feel hopeless and put-upon.

Better questions would be:

• ”What CAN I eat right now that would taste good AND help me get the body I want?” [this one COMPLETELY shifts your focus from what you’re missing out on to what you want, and thus completely changes how you feel and experience that situation.]
• What do I love about working out?
• How can I get back on track and be really happy doing it?
• Why do I love being fit?

YES, those questions actually have REAL answers.  Your brain may reply to the first one with, “Nothing!” initially.  But, you’re the boss  and you can always ask again, and ask with the expectation that you will get an answer – which you’ll get in no more than 60sec.  (By the way, when it comes to people’s brains and their kids they always seem to forget that they are the boss and that they call the shots…)

The questions you ask will determine what you focus on, and thus how you feel and what kind of action you do or don’t take.  Be conscious of the questions you are asking.  If you’re feeling bad its usually being compounded by a negative question, and you can turn things around very quickly with a positive question.

A positive question will get your focused on what you want, what you like and how to get there while having a good time and will completely change how you feel.

Let me leave you with these questions.  By the way if you take 10sec per question to really answer specifically, and to FEEL the answers you will feel like a million bucks!

#1.  What are you happy about in my body/fitness/lifestyle right now?  Why
does that make me happy?  How does that make me feel?

#2.  What am I proud of in my body/fitness/lifestyle?  Why am I proud of
that?  How does that make me feel?

#3.  What am I looking forward to in my body/fitness/lifestyle?  Why am I
looking forward to that?  How does that make me feel?

#4.  On a general note:  What am I grateful for in my life?  Why?  How
does that make me feel?

#5.  Who do I love?  Why?  How does that make me feel?

Really take the 10sec to specifically answer and feel those answers.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and an award winning Washington DC personal trainer that was nominated several times for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine.  Oh, and check out his new web-site washingtondcpersonaltrainer.com

A New Year, A New Body

Happy New Year!

You asked for it, you got it.  Many of you all have asked for:

• Help with motivation
• Help with energy
• Help with finding the time
• More samples of my programs
• More exercise guidance
• Help with dropping belly fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, butt fat…

Here it is. With the good folks at Primer Magazine, I have laid out a complete 12-week, 3-phase program that addresses ALL of the above points and spells out the nutrition AND exercise program to get you MAXIMUM results in MINIMUM time.

For the ladies, yes, Primer is a men’s magazine, don’t worry about this.  This is a fat loss program NOT a muscle growth program.  While almost everyone will gain some muscle on this program, the women just won’t gain that much and what you do gain will be sexy and feminine.  It takes a lot of a different kind of work to turn into a she-man, and this isn’t that program.  (Not to mention that there really isn’t that much demand for the she-man look.)

There are only 2 differences between men and women when it comes to body-composition training (improving ratio of fat to muscle):

#1.  Women usually need fewer carbs.  So just eat more fruits and veggies and use a Whey recovery drink intead of a carb + protein one (i.e. Surge)

#2.  Sometimes women need extra cardio.  Occaisionally women need to add 10, 15 or 20min of hard steady-state work AFTER their intervals.

However, I don’t see this very often.  I have plenty of ladies in their late 50’s who look great without any steady-state work.

So, 1st follow the plan as written and track results.

2nd If results are not as desired, check that you are eating on-point and lifting heavy enough weight.

3rd, if #2 doesn’t fix (it almost always does), then tack on 15min.

Here is part one of the road map to a brand new you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

2 Things You Need In Your Kitchen

Before I get into the meat of the post I want to thank you for tuning in to me in 2008.  I am honored by your attention and time.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in the New Year.  In week #1 look for the start of a 4 part series on creating a brand new body in the time that you actually have.  I’m doing it with the good folks at Primer Magazine over the next 13 weeks:

•    Part I A (week 1):  creating the mind-set to finally succeed this New Years – 99% of Americans fail to keep their resolutions past even 2 weeks, so don’t miss this part.
•    Part I B (week 1):  the simple nutrition plan that will massively skyrocket your energy AND help you drop 10lbs of body-fat in 4 weeks without having to count calories
•    Part II (week 2):  the 4 week Metabolic Blast workout plan – the other half of the equation that will have you down up to 10lbs of body-fat in just 28 days and less than 3.5hrs/week of exercise.  (I’ve had people do a lot better than 10lbs in 28 days.)
•    Part III (week 5):  phase II of the Metabolic Blast and trouble-shooting based on readers questions.  If you want your body to make progress, then you must systematically (NOT haphazardly) progress your workouts over time.  Generally every 4 weeks works very well.
•    Part IV (week 9):  phase III of the Metabolic Blast.  Its time to finish off your New Year’s transformation and “unveil.”  If you’ve stuck with it so far you will be looking at a new person in the mirror.

#1.  Sugar-Free Syrup

.25 cup regular maple and/or pancake syrup has at least 200 kcal in it, ALL of which are from sugar.  A quarter cup is only 4 tbsp and is extremely easy to eat without realizing it.  Most people end up eating between .25 and .5 a cup with breakfast.

4tbsp of maple syrup is the equivalent of a 20oz bottle of regular coke.  That is a HUGE blood sugar spike and crash (energy destroyer), and a HUGE spike of insulin (super fat storage, unless you just finished lifting weights).

Sugar-free syrup has just 20kcal per .25 cup, all of which come from slow-digesting sugar alcohols.

So, if you are making my super yummy, high protein pancakes use sugar-free syrup.  By the way “super yummy, high protein pancake” is NOT an oxymoron, and they’re made out of actual food, not a hodge-podge of highly processed Franken-food.  Oh, and they are very easy to make too.

#2.  Low-Carb Ketchup

Ketchup is pretty much just red high fructose corn syrup (HFSC).  This came as a big blow to me as I am a ketchup lover.  75% of the calories in regular ketchup come from HFSC, the most fattening substance known to man.  A few tablespoons here and a few tablespoons there you have a can of coke on your eggs, bun-less burger or whatever you like ketchup on.

Luckily there is such a thing as low carb ketchup where they take out the HFSC or sugar and replace it with Splenda, and the remaining calories come from actual tomatoes.  It has 75% fewer calories AND no added sugar and still tastes good.

While neither one of these changes alone will give you a completely different physique, both will help you to make more progress towards a leaner and more energetic you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Where Are They Now? What Happens a Year After Fat Loss?

All pictures were taken in the same closet at the same gym with the same crappy camera. No tanning (obviously!), no baby oil, or anything else.

Would anyone like to know his “secrets”? Would you all like to see a post about that?

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

How To Eat Whatever You Want On Thanksgiving Without Getting Fat

I’m aware that I sound like I am selling a magic diet pill or something, but I’m not. I’m not selling anything but common sense. However, rarely, if ever, is common sense common practice.

Think about it, no one ever got fat on one day. It’s a really poor lifestyle that makes people fat. Its eating junk and sitting on your ass (or doing aerobics) all year long that makes people fat. If you are on point and live a great lifestyle 361 days out of the year, you can take off Thanksgiving, your birthday, X-mass (or Chanukah), and New Year’s and be fine.

Conversely if you try to be “good” on those holidays, but you suck the rest of the year the only thing you will accomplish is:

#1. Being a pain in the ass to your family: Don’t be the person at Thanksgiving who makes mom cook broiled white fish and steamed spinach when she is up to her elbows in turkey giblets.

#2. Being miserable: Eating your “health” food while everyone else has stuffing with gravy is not likely to put you in the best of spirits.

#3. Remain fat: Holidays “on” and the rest of the year “off” is bass-akwards. That’s spelled right:-).

#4. Reinforce the completely ERRONEOUS notion that “being fit is miserable”: People are just big versions of Pavlov’s dogs. Giving yourself pain for trying to do the right things does not reinforce the right behavior and will undermine your progress over the long haul.

The whole key is: Enjoy The Holidays On the Actual Holiday, then get back to a normal and healthy lifestyle. (Or, if you are in the process of losing body fat, take the holiday off and get back on your plan the next day.)

Don’t be one of those people who thinks they can use this blog post to try and “get over” on nature. You know, the people who will be thinking, “well, Josef said I can eat whatever I want on Thanksgiving and I won’t get fat. So, its OK for me to cheat when ever I want.”

No, no, no. You can fool yourself with such thinking, but at the end of the year you cannot fool nature. Thermodynamics and biochemistry determine what your body will look and feel like. You will be pudgy and tired if you do the wrong things, regardless of the rationalizations you make up in your head.

Keys To Success:

#1. Only Take Home Turkey: Don’t take home leftovers. Or, send away or give away all of your leftovers. Taking home half a pie is the same as inserting that pie into your fat cells manually. You had your pie on Thanksgiving and that is that. If you take it home it will end up in your mouth.

I know some of you think this is tantamount to wasting food. If you can’t give it away to someone else, then maybe it is. But, don’t you think that your body has better things to do than be a junk food trashcan?

It all depends on your values – is saving $3 worth of pie more important than having a million bucks worth of health, fitness, energy and sexiness? If you go with the $3, then I really can’t help you because you won’t even do the bare minimum to help yourself.

#2. Enjoy Thanksgiving ON Thanksgiving: I just want to reiterate the main point of this post.

• Wednesday the 26th – eat right.
• Thursday the 27th – do whatever you want (but do notice how lousy you feel afterwards as this will help reinforce why you WANT to eat right and be healthy the rest of the time).
• Friday the 28th – get back on point and notice how crappy you feel when you wake up, and how much your energy improves when you take great care of yourself.

Have a warm, wonderful and loving holiday.

And thank you so much to all the wonderful people who donated to the DC Basket Brigade. We raise 90% MORE money than last year. What recession?

“The media has correctly predicted 10 out of the last 2 recessions.”
-Zig Zigglar

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Where Is Washington, DC’s Cutest Personal Trainer?

A lot of people were shocked by the fact that I was able to to get my sister’s pet pug certified as a personal trainer in this post about getting ripped off by the first personal trainer I hired in DC. A lot of people also think that Calhoun J. Pigglesworth III is adorable and want to know what he’s up to.

Sadly, my sister moved to Pennsylvania (and took the pug), so Cal is no longer in DC:-(.

That was probably the least informative blog post I’ve done, but next week I’ve got a good one for you – How To Eat Whatever You Want on Thanksgiving Without Getting Fat. Yes, I really mean whatever the hell you want.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

What Does That Tattoo Mean? or What if you couldn’t have Thanksgiving?

I love tattoos. I’ve got 5 of them to date. I’d love to get a few more, but my fiancé laid down the law and said “no more!” As a man who knows what’s good for him, I listened:-).

The most meaningful one that I have is on my right shoulder of the initials “A N G.” That stands for Ashambei Nimmey-Roots Griffith. He was (is) my best friend, and sadly he was killed while riding his bike on the way to school 7 years ago.

The reason I bring up Ashambei is because I always think about him in November as we approach Thanksgiving because of what he helped me do the year before he passed away.

Back when I was 19 I first found out about a charity called The Basket Brigade. The Basket Brigade collects/assembles Thanksgiving baskets and delivers them to families that otherwise would not have a Thanksgiving. I like to think of it as shining a ray of hope into someone’s life who may be going through a really rough time right now.

So at 19 when I found out about the Brigade I was really excited and said, “sign me up! I’d love to create and deliver a basket.” The Basket Brigade folks put me in touch with the DC Coordinator and I found out the he had just quit – there was no DC Basket Brigade. “Crap!” I said.

“Don’t worry,” the Basket Brigade people said, “ all you have to do is become the coordinator. Its really not that hard. We’ll send you all the paper work and instructions today.”

I thought this was a really great idea and I told them and everyone else I knew, including the principle of a DC Public School who found the families for me, that I would commit to feeding 25 families with my first Brigade. I was gung-ho!

Then reality hit – I had 8 days, and at 19 you and all your friends are broke! So I went on an asking rampage – I asked everyone I knew. That got me maybe 3 baskets. So I took off of work and school and stayed up for 72 hours straight, spent every dime I had and then some, and asked every single stranger that I could for help with Thanksgiving baskets. That got me to about 12 baskets on the day that the baskets were due, with about 3 hours to go when I had committed to 25!

Then Ashambei and his mother pulled up in their van that was packed wit 800 POUNDS of food. That was it. That over-filled each and every one of the 25 baskets with food to spare that we donated to other people’s Thanksgiving efforts. Ashambei really made the first Brigade possible.

That was DC Basket Brigade #1. This year is #9 (8 in memory of my friend). Please join me this year in honoring him and in giving thanks by giving back.

Email me right now (josef@thebodyyouwant.com) and let me know if I can count on you for a basket or a check for $40 so that we can buy a basket with on your behalf.

If you have any questions, here is a flyer with all the details:
-Who to make the check out to
-Where to send the check
-What goes into the basket
-When and where to bring the basket for the Brigade

Click on the link below to download the flier as a PDF.

dcbb-9-flyer-ol2

Lastly, if you are interested, I was interviewed by Bob Calvert from TalkingWithHeros.com (I’m very flattered to be on a web site with that name) on Saturday about the Basket Brigade. Click play to listen if you have the time.

Thank you in advance for your contribution. Have an amazing week.

Josef

P.S.  The DC Basket Brigade now has a web-site! at www.dcbasketbrigade.org

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

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