Frequent eating speeds up your metabolism due to the thermic effect of food

Every physiological process that occurs in your body uses energy. Keeping your heart beating and circulating blood uses energy. Creating new body cells requires energy. So does breathing. Even thinking burns calories. Digestion is no exception. The mechanical breakdown and absorption of food requires a substantial number of calories.


Some of the calories in the foods you eat are burned off just to digest them, so the net amount of calories absorbed is actually less than the amount contained in the food. This process has several names such as “Dietary-induced thermogenesis,” the “Specific– dynamic action of food,” or most commonly, the “Thermic effect of food.”  The thermic effect peaks about an hour after each meal and begins to drop about three hours after the meal has been completely digested.


You may have heard the expression, “negative calories.” This refers to certain foods, such as asparagus or lettuce, which have a high thermic effect and a low calorie density. It’s almost impossible for these foods to be stored as fat because most of their calories are burned off just to digest them!


When fat loss is your goal, your diet should be heavy in foods with a high thermic effect, including fibrous vegetables and lean proteins. You’ll never get fat eating lean proteins and green vegetables/salads –it’s virtually impossible.  Lean protein foods like chicken breast, fish and egg whites have the highest thermic effect of all and that’s why this program is centered on protein, with carbohydrates built around the protein. Lean protein is a “metabolic stimulator.”


The magnitude of the thermic effect can vary from 3% to 30%. Protein foods elicit a thermic effect of up to 30% of the meal's total calories. Natural starchy and fibrous carbohydrates are a close second at around 20%. Fats and refined carbohydrates have a very low thermic effect (fats only elicit a 3% thermic effect). This is one of the reasons dietary fat is so easily stored as body fat.


The fact that dietary fats have only a 3% thermic effect is an important point. There has been a trend in recent years away from high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets towards eating higher fat and higher protein with fewer carbohydrates. To a point, this is
a step in the right direction, but the more fat you eat beyond what you need for your essential fatty acid needs, the slower your metabolism becomes. One reason why diets promoting high fat (above 30% of daily calories) are ineffective is because high fat diets are not thermic!


The promoters of high-fat diets suggest you can eat unlimited fat as long as your carbohydrates are restricted. They also suggest that high fat will stimulate the testosterone and growth hormone release that’s necessary for muscle development and fat burning.
The problem is, even if there’s an extra release of anabolic hormones, it’s not going to help you much if your metabolism is as slow as molasses in January.


You’ll get more detailed instructions on how to create meals with the highest thermic effect in upcoming chapters. For now, you should understand this: Eating every three hours = high thermic effect/fast metabolism.  Missing meals = no thermic effect/slow metabolism.


Once you understand the concept of dietary thermogenesis, you’ll never want to miss a meal again because you’ll realize that eating properly increases your metabolism and gets you leaner, while skipping meals slows down your metabolism and makes you fatter!

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Jay Cutler

Jay Cutler (born Jason Isaac Cutler August 3, 1973 in Sterling, Massachusetts) is an IFBB professional bodybuilder. He has won the title Mr. Olympia four times.


- 1992 Gold Gym Worcester Bodybuilding Championships – 2nd
- 1996 NPC Nationals, 2nd place Light Heavyweight (earned IFBB pro card)
- 1998 IFBB Night of Champions – 11th
- 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic – 4th
- 1999 IFBB Ironman Pro Invitational – 3rd
- 1999 Mr. Olympia – 14th
- 2000 English Grand Prix – 2nd
- 2000 Joe Weider's World Pro Cup – 2nd
- 2000 Mr. Olympia – 8th
- 2000 Mr. Olympia Rome – 2nd
- 2001 Mr. Olympia – 2nd
- 2003 Mr. Olympia – 2nd
- 2003 Russian Grand Prix – 2nd
- 2003 GNC Show of Strength – 2nd
- 2004 Mr. Olympia – 2nd
- 2005 Mr. Olympia – 2nd
- 2006 Mr. Olympia – 1st
- 2007 Mr. Olympia – 1st
- 2008 Mr. Olympia – 2nd
- 2009 Mr. Olympia – 1st
- 2010 Mr. Olympia – 1st
- 2011 Mr. Olympia – 2nd
- 2011 Sheru Classic – 2nd

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Is There a Role for High GI carbs for Bodybuilders and other Athletes?

After all the high GI carb bashing I just did, the reader might think there is no place for them in the bodybuilders diet. This assumption would be wrong.

As the expression goes, “there is a time and place for everything” and there is one key time and place for high GI carbs, immediately following workouts.

Following workouts the body preferentially shuttles glucose into the liver and muscles replacing lost glycogen via both insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent glucose transport mechanisms (Gautier, J.F., 2001).

This is the key time to take advantage of the one thing high GI carbs do well: raise blood sugar and insulin quickly. Post workout, the catabolic (muscle wasting) hormone cortisol rises.

Drinking a post workout drink consisting of high GI carbs and fast acting proteins is perhaps the best way to prevent the post workout effects of cortisol due to the sharp rise in insulin which is known to counter act the effects of cortisol (Kraemer, W.J., et al, 1998).

Some bodybuilders will eat a high GI meal such as a bowl of white rice or corn flakes in skim milk, and drink a protein shake consisting of whey with it or mix a carb drink with a few scoops of protein powder.

Interestingly, studies have found a better insulin response when carbs and protein is mixed together post workout over carbs alone (Ivy, J.L., 1998). Specific grams of carbs per kg of bodyweight formulas exist for post workout carbohydrate and proteins recommendations (Burke, L.M., 1997), though 75-100g of high GI carbs and 30-50 grams of protein is the norm with most athletes and will suffice.

These numbers would of course be subtracted from the days total for carbs, proteins, and calories (see below). In a nut shell:

• High GI foods can help refill liver and muscle glycogen stores immediately following exercise and may reduce the catabolic effects of cortisol post workout.

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Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates or sugars are made primarily of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms that cyclize into a ring. Carbohydrates can be “simple” or “complex” by the number of rings you hook together and the way in which they hook together. Though the rings can be slightly different, their common theme is
that of the ring structure as their final shape.

Similar to amino acids and fats, when you link the simple units (the sugars) together you get carbohydrates with different properties. You can link glucose units together to get a glucose polymer and in fact the body stores units of glucose linked together in the liver and muscle called “glycogen,” a term most people are familiar with.

You can also link different kinds of sugars to get different products. For instance,

if you combine glucose with fructose you get sucrose (table sugar). If you combine glucose with galactose you get lactose (milk sugar) and so on.


Link a bunch of sugars together and you get polysaccarides. Combine two sugars together like the previously mentioned lactose and you get a disaccharide. Of course, by themselves they are call monosaccharides.  Are you starting to see a repeating theme here?

Link a simple unit together with other units and you get a product the body can do all sorts of things with.  Linking units together gives you a product (fats, carbs, and proteins) and breaking down the products into units (ultimately) gives you energy.

So simple yet so complex.


You will notice I have not mention the “essential carbohydrates” because there is no such thing!  Though the body runs best on an intake of some carbs in the diet, the body can make its own carbohydrates from protein and other non-carbohydrate substrates as mentioned in the protein section.

Going in reverse from digestion, the body breaks down complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates and ultimately blood sugar (glucose) which can go onto be used for many different functions, such as the production of ATP (the body’s universal energy molecule). Depending on the carbohydrate and other factors, different carbohydrates will have different effects on blood sugar; in particular how fast blood sugar rises and falls (Gin, H., 2000).


The ability of a carbohydrate food to raise blood sugar quickly or slowly is called the glycemic index (GI). The GI was developed to track what foods effect blood sugar at different rates.

Interestingly, many carbohydrates that are considered “complex” have been found to raise blood sugar rapidly while a few “simple” carbohydrates don't have a dramatic effect on blood sugar.  GI rating of a food is based on how much blood glucose rises after consuming a carbohydrate food over a 2-hour period.  This is compared to a reference, which is glucose, a simple sugar.

Some GI scales now use white bread as the reference, but we will use the glucose scale in this chapter.  For instance, if you consume 50 grams of glucose (yuk), you will get dramatic elevation in blood sugar.  If you eat say 50 grams of carbs found in the form of oranges, your blood glucose would probably rise approximately
44% as high as compared to glucose.

So, the GI rating for oranges would be 44 on the glucose scale. Using white bread as the reference carbohydrate, it would be a different number. Capich?

Below is a partial list of the GI. There is no hard science to what is considered a low or high GI food per se, but a good guide is low is below 50, intermediate is between 50 and 75 and high GI foods are 75 and above on the scale.


brown rice pasta 92 linguine, durum 50 macaroni 46
macaroni & cheese 64

Pasta

spaghetti 40
spag. protein enriched. 28 vermicelli 35
vermicelli, rice 58
apple 38
apricot, canned 64 apricot, dried 30 apricot jam 55 banana 62
banana, unripe 30 cantaloupe 65 cherries 22
dates, dried 103 fruit cocktail 55 grapefruit 25 grapes 43

Fruits

kiwi 52 mango 55 orange 43 papaya 58 peach 42 pear 36 pineapple 66 plum 24 raisins 64
strawberries 32 strawberry jam 51 watermelon 72
Lentils 28
Soybeans 18
Baked beans (canned) 48 baby lima 32
chickpeas 33
kidney 27

Legumes

lentil 30 navy 38 pinto 42
split peas 32 soy 18
barley 22 brown rice 59 buckwheat 54 bulger 47 cornmeal 68
couscous 65

Grains

millet 75
rice, instant 91 rice, parboiled 47 rye 34
sweet corn 55
white rice 88


Dairy Foods

milk, full fat 27 milk, skim 32
ice cream, full fat 61 yogurt, low fat, fruit 33
white bread 70 wholemeal bread 69 pumpernickel 41 dark rye 76 sourdough 57
heavy mixed grain 30-45

Breads

All Bran Soy’ n Fibre  33
Raisin Bran 61
Froot Loops 69
Special K 69
Grape Nuts 75
Corn Pops 80
Cornflakes 84

Breakfast cereals

Rice Crispies 82
Cheerios 83
Puffed Wheat 80
All Bran 42
Porridge 46

Snack foods

Mars Bar 65
jelly beans 80
chocolate bar 49

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What’s The Best Way to Lose Stubborn Belly Fat ?

Everyone wants to know how to lose fat around their abs, well, here's how I do it...

The  question that is asked on all fitness sites, bodybuilding forums, magazines and late night TV infomercials sounds a lot like these:

How to I lose the stubborn belly fat? How do I lose abdominal fat? How to do I get great abs? How do I lose the stomach pouch off the lower abs?

These are all too common question and they are so popular that it's the reason the weight reduction arena is a multi- billion dollar (yes billion) industry.

You are about to read the real secret to great abs and how to lose the abdominal fat without spending money on supplements or following some diet-of-the-month  and it's going to be a very simple formula that you can follow. Remember...

Your abdominal muscle is like the rest of the muscles in your body. They require training if you want them to be larger and stronger.   A common misconception is that you must train your abs several times a week. This will only lead to overtraining.   Your abs are a muscle.  Train it like everything else.  No need to focus and go overboard.  Two to three times a week of focused ab work or core strength is generally the rule for 6 pack abs.

An Easy 3-Step System For Ripped Abdominals: 

Step 1:
Training:  1% of your overall ab development will actually come from training.  Consider the fact that most people think 90% of your results come from training, you can see this isn't the popular consensus.  Needless to say, that‟s where most focus their efforts.  They don't get their nutrition in order, they don't use cardio effectively so the masses
just do more ab training and more crunches.   Ultimately for your abs to show you must have abs to show and a low percentage of body fat for them to appear. More training does nothing to eliminate the layer of fat that is covering them. This is commonly known as spot reduction. Training an area for the sole purpose of eliminating fat in that area.



Tip - Do not make training the  priority to show off those abs.  Train them like any other muscle.  More ab work will not make your abs appear.  Focus on lowering your body fat levels and not spot reduction.





Step 2:

Cardio:  9% of your effort can be directed as using cardio as a fat burning tool. High intensity interval training is by far the fastest and most efficient method you can use to shed the pounds.  You'll want to keep in mind, using cardio is a tool. Not a foundation.  This simply means that doing marathon sessions will not be to your advantage.  Learn to use cardio effectively and you can enhance and boost your metabolism beyond what even eating the right foods can do.   Some competitive bodybuilders use cardio up to twice a day for 30 days to just chisel off that last remaining
layer of fat that's cover up the abdominal region.

Tip - Cardio can be done twice a day for a full body shock!  Just keep in mind this method is a short term tool and not a routine you would use for any length of time.

Step 3:

Nutrition: 90% of your efforts will be based upon your diet.  In order to show off the abs, you must get rid of the layer of fat that is covering them up. It is that simple.  Many people will train their abs and do all kinds of cardio and they still forget that nutrition plays such a massive role in getting rid of belly fat.  You must know how many calories
a day you need to eat and what to eat in order to get your nutrition on track and working for you.  Going to the gym
more often, doing more cardio and more hanging crunches will do you no good if you fail 90% of the test. Tip - Use nutritional fundamentals to turn your body into a fat burning furnace.
Wait just a second...

Before you rush off to check your nutrition, cardio and training, take this next concept into consideration.

Loose Skin:  Skin is very elastic and over time (age) or with a large amount of weight reduction it may not just spring back like it did.  In this case, surgery may be the only option once you have reached a very low level of overall body fat.

-Many women may experience this because of pregnancy. -Many men and women may experience this because of a large amount of weight reduction.

For example, if a man was under 10% body fat and had loose skin; this is a prime example where skin may need to be taken away because of other circumstances.  While this is pretty rare it does happen and if the skin cannot bounce back, there are little options a person has except to have it removed. What this means is...

If you have a low enough (12-15% or less body fat for a woman in this example) and you still have a lot of loose skin from slimming down or pregnancy, you may want to explore the option of having that excess skin removed.

With that said...




The secret to ripped abs is nothing more then 3-steps in this order of importance:

1.   Nutrition
2.   Cardio
3.   Training

You see, all of the programs you'll find will adhere to these 3 concepts.  Once you have the abs, you need to show them. In order to show them, you will need to get rid of the layer of fat that is covering them up. It's easy to lose the belly fat when you know how.

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Protein and kidney disease

At one time or another, you've probably heard the myth that high-protein diets are bad for your kidneys, they dehydrate you and cause osteoporosis. Well, here's the truth: If you have a history of kidney problems, you should avoid high-protein intakes at all costs. However, it's a medical and scientific fact that except in the case of pre-existing kidney disease, there’s no proof that a high-protein intake will cause damage to a healthy kidney. In fact, there’s not a single study that has ever been published in a peer-reviewed
scientific journal using adult human subjects with healthy kidneys that’s shown any kidney dysfunction whatsoever as a result of consuming a high-protein diet.


"High-protein diets have never proven to be a serious hazard for healthy people, although processing excess protein can overburden a liver or kidneys that are damaged by disease. That's why individuals with kidney or liver disease are often put on protein- restricted diets.”

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Protein consumption as a percentage of total calories

The best (And most accurate) method for determining protein consumption is to calculate protein needs as a percentage of your total caloric intake. First, you determine your daily calorie needs based on your lean body weight.  The next step is to select the optimal percentage of calories from protein. The percentage you choose must be in line with your goals, activity requirements, body type and metabolic rate.


The baseline recommendation for people who participate in cardiovascular and resistance training exercise on a regular basis is 30% of total calories, although this percentage can vary depending on your needs.  As we discussed in the chapter on carbohydrates, some people get better results with a lower carbohydrate intake. If carbohydrates are lower, then fats or protein must be higher. This is why, if you’re carbohydrate sensitive, you might decrease your carbohydrates to about 40% and increase your protein to as much as 35-40% of your calories.


Once you’ve selected your percentage of calories to come from protein, simply multiply the percentage of calories from protein by your total calories for the day the
same way you did for fats and carbohydrates. This will tell you how many calories should
come from protein. The final step is to divide the protein calories by four (there are four calories in each gram of protein) and this will tell you how many grams of protein you should eat per day.


Example 1:
You are a female, 130 lbs. very active
Your optimal calorie intake to lose fat is 1700 calories per day
To determine your protein intake, multiply your caloric intake by 30%
1700 calories per day X .30% = 510 calories from protein
There are 4 calories per gram of protein
510 protein calories divided by 4 calories per gram of protein = 127.5 grams of protein


Example 2:
You are male, 190 lbs., moderately active
Your optimal calorie intake to lose fat is 2600 calories per day
To determine your protein intake, multiply your caloric intake by 30%
2600 calories per day X .30% = 780 calories from protein
There are 4 calories per gram of protein
780 protein calories divided by 4 calories per gram of protein = 195 grams of protein


As you probably noticed, the 30% figure came out fairly close to one gram per pound of bodyweight guideline. This will always be the case if your body composition is average or better and your goal is fat loss (When there’s a calorie deficit)

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