Diet and Fitness Research – Fundamental Errors and Misinterpretations

“New study says…” Whenever you see these words my first thought would be to ask, what does all of the other research say?

Some diet and fitness research claims simply don't fit with reality

In health and fitness one research paper will never be the final answer about weight loss, or muscle building, or why a particular food is ‘more healthy’ than another.

Each study is designed to answer one specific question in a specific group of people. In  most cases the exact thing being measured and the group of people it’s being measured in is likely not representative of most people.

The problem arises because of a fundamental gap between what type of research academics are doing, and the claims they are willing to make vs the claims the media and bloggers are willing to make on the same information.

Academic papers are written for the most part for other academics to read, they’re not typically written to generate claims for people to then act on for weight loss, or muscle gaining, or general health.

In today’s podcast we’re going to explain why this gap exists and how some of the most commonly held beliefs in the diet and fitness industry come from a misinterpretation of research by the media.

John

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When is a Calorie Finally “In” You?

The amount of food energy you need to consume in a day can be scientifically determined if you have access to a metabolic lab. Most of us will never actually be in such a lab, and therefore we are left taking our best guess at how many calories we really need to eat in any given day.

Food energy isn't technically "in" your system until it's absorbed into your blood

The first place to start is with an estimate of your Basal Metabolic Rate based on known equations for your height. These equations are also estimates based on averages. Some people will be above the average and some will be below the average. In both cases it’s perfectly normal as we’re all slightly different than one another.

The calorie balance that will dictate if you gain or lose weight will also change over time throughout your life. This change will depend on your life stage, your training status and your relative health.

In today’s podcast we’ll talk about the calorie equation and how it is constantly changing depending on what state you are in. Managing bodyweight will always be about calories in vs out, but it’s worth defining what calories ‘in’ even means, and where all the possible ‘outs’ are.

John

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Weight Training and the “Afterburn” Effect

Weight training and cardio training are primarily used for two different purposes. We do weight training to build muscle and strength and shape our bodies. We do cardio training for the overall cardiovascular health benefits as well as for the extra calorie burn.

EPOC is simply paying back your oxygen debt

It’s become common knowledge that cardio only really increases the calories burned during the exercise session itself. There is a belief that weight training can increase your calorie burn throughout the day from the increased metabolic activity of added muscle. This second effect is greatly overstated as each pound of added muscle only requires approximately 5 calories per day.

There is however a third form of so called metabolic elevation that gets mentioned in the fitness media and that is the Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) after high intensity workouts. This is commonly referred to as the ‘afterburn’ effect and there is even research to suggest such an effect happens up to 48 hours post workout.

But before you go out and start doing maximum lift workouts the specifics of the research that shows this result must be examined. Upon closer look you’ll find out that much of the claims you hear about in the fitness industry aren’t exactly what they appear to be.

In today’s podcast, we’ll discuss where the EPOC and elevated metabolism claims come from and discuss if they’re applicable to you or not. We’ll also explain how easy it is for the fitness media to misinterpret research and send people on a wild goose chase of the ‘best’ workout, when in reality it doesn’t really exist.

John

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Current Strength Training Recommendations A Hoax?

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is one of the most recognized certifying bodies for personal trainers and strength and conditioning coaches. They publish a couple well known journals and most of the recent resistance training research can be found in their journals.

Arnold and the boys did just fine without these recommendations

Their position paper on resistance training gives recommendations on guidelines that trainers and coaches might want to use with their clients/athletes.  You would  assume this position stand is rooted in science and gives the best possible evidence based advice. At at glance this appears to be evident, but a recent review of their position stand shows that their position and the scientific vigor it was conducted with might not be as thorough as we’d like to think.

In today’s UNCENSORED podcast, we discuss the critical review done by Carpinelli et al on the ACSM position paper on strength training. (you can download the analysis here –> Critical Analysis )

In this review, Carpinelli shows us that many of the so called truths we cling to about strength training might not be grounded in as much evidence as we might be led to believe.

Many of the fundamental principles are resting on shaky ground to say the least. If you follow many of today’s recommendations back to their origin you’ll be surprised to find out in many cases there is no rigorous scientific proof for many of the recommendations that are repeated on a weekly and monthly basis by both the fitness industry and even certifying organizations such as the ACSM.

John

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Are You Addicted to Food

Why do we eat the type and amount of food we do? What determines our food choices and when we choose to stop eating? There are a number of factors that play a role and now research is looking into the concept of food addiction.

Rats can become addicted to Cookies...can we?

There is a growing body of research that indicates people could be addicted to food in the classical definition of addiction.

Researchers are showing that rats can become addicted to food and display all the symptoms of irritability, withdrawal and the ability to massively overeat when food is present. This research is giving us the framework to study if some people are also addicted to food.

Being addicted to food presents a unique problem as we must continue to eat. You can’t just go off of food cold turkey and never eat again.

So how do you overcome an addiction to a something that you need to consume on a daily basis to survive?

The first step is to find out if you truly have a food addiction or just tend to overeating at social occasions or when you’re bored. The reason some people overeat is never clear and the potential for true addiction is another factor in a long list of potential problem we need to tackle.

John

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The Limits of Muscle Growth

There are multiple factors that contribute to your ability to grow larger muscles.

Factors that can be rate limiting are:

Even the Hulk stops growing at some point.

1. Nutrition – Severe malnutrition or starvation will limit your ability to grow your  muscles to their full potential.

2. Exercise – Progressive resistance training will stimulate muscle growth beyond what your natural level of muscle mass is without working out.

3. Muscle Tissue – Your genetically predetermined muscle mass.

In most cases nutrition and exercise will not limit your ability to grow. Your genetically predetermined muscle size and tissue architecture will be the rate limiting step.

Even bodybuilders who use copious amounts of drugs eventually revert back to their predetermined genetic muscle mass limit once they stop using drugs.

It appears that the body has a very tight control on muscle mass and this would lead us to believe that it’s happening for a very good reason.

It might be that going above and beyond this limit is not a good thing for your body overall.

We propose that the golden Adonis Index ratio is likely a close estimation of what the upper limit of potential muscle mass is on any given person.

Exceeding this limit is definitely possible with drugs, but considering the strict control the body has on this limit, it might not be the healthiest thing to do.

In today’s uncensored podcast, we discuss this limits of muscle growth and why it is likely set the way it is.

John

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