Fit Over 40 and Burn The Fat

How Liquid Calories May Be Making You Fat... Even Your Favorite Protein Drinks! By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS www.BurnTheFat.com At least 7 scientific studies have provided strong evidence that energy containing beverages (i.e., “liquid calories”) do not properly activate the satiety mechanisms in the body and brain and do not satisfy the appetite as well as food in solid form.  Epidemiological research also supports a positive association between calorie-containing beverage consumption and increased body weight or body mass index. New research now suggests that soda may not be the only culprit… The primary source of liquid calories in the United States Diet is carbohydrate, namely soda. Now running a close second are specialty and dessert coffees. Did you know that a 16 ounce Frappucino can contain 500 calories or even more! That’s one-third of a typical female’s daily calorie intake while on a fat loss program. A recent study at Purdue University published in the International Journal of Obesity set out to learn even more about this bodyfat - liquid calories relationship. Researchers compared solid and beverage forms of foods composed primarily of carbohydrate, fat or protein in order to document the independent effect of food form in foods with different dominant macronutrient sources. Based on previous research, some experts have recommended targeting specific beverages as being “worse” than others. High fructose corn syrup and soda has been singled out the most and you’ve probably seen that yourself in the news. There’s no question that soda has been on top of the “hit list” for some time now, by virtue of the amounts and frequency of consumption alone. However, this recent study says that from a pure energy balance perspective, we should be cautious about ALL liquid calories, not just soda and not just carbohydrates! Fruit juice for example, appears to be an obvious improvement over soda, so many people have swapped out their soda for fruit juice. However, when fruit juice is compared to an equal amount of calories from whole fruit, the whole fruit satisfies appetite better (largely due to the bulk and fiber content), and so you tend to eat fewer calories for the day. [On an interesting side note, soup does not seem to apply; soup has higher satiety value than calorie containing beverages, possibly for mere cognitive reasons.] If you were to meticulously track your calories from beverages and you made sure that your calories remained the same for the day, whether liquid or solid, there would probably be little or no difference in your body composition. But that’s not what usually happens in free-living humans. Most people do not accurately track or report their caloric intake. Our mistake is that we tend to drink calories IN ADDITION TO our usual food intake, not instead of it. Men are especially guilty of this when they drink alcohol - Men tend to drink AND eat, while women tend to drink INSTEAD OF eating. This new research found that with all three macronutrients - protein, carbs or fat - daily calorie intake was significantly greater when the beverage form was consumed as compared to the solid. Yes, it’s true! Even protein drinks did not satisfy the appetite the way that protein foods did! While you would think that protein drinks are purely a good thing, because protein foods have been proven to reduce appetite and increase satiety, if you turn a solid protein food into a protein drink, it loses it’s appetite suppressive properties in the same way that happens when you turn fruit into fruit juice. [NOTE: After weight training workouts, liquid nutrition may have benefits that outweigh any downside, especially on muscle-gaining programs] Why do liquid calories fail to elicit the same response as whole foods? reasons include: high calorie density lower satiety value more calories ingested in short period of time lower demand for oral processing shorter gastrointestinal transit times energy in beverages has greater bioaccessibility and bioavailability mechanisms may include cognitive, orosensory, digestive, metabolic, endocrine and neural influences (human appetite is a complex thing!!!) last but not least, nowhere in our history have our ancestors had access to large amounts of liquid calories. Alcohol may have been around as far back as several thousand years BC, but even that is a blip on the evolutionary calendar of humanity. As a result, our genetic code has never developed the physiological mechanisms to properly register the caloric content in liquids the way it does when you eat, chew and swallow whole foods. Bottom line: This study suggests that we shouldn’t just target one type of liquid calories such as soda. If you’re trying to beat body fat, it’s wise to limit all types of liquid calories and eat whole foods as much as possible. Start by ditching the soda. Then ditch the high calorie dessert coffees. Then cut back on the alcohol. From there, be cautious even about milk, juice and protein drinks. Drink water or tea instead, or limited amounts of black coffee - without all the high calorie extras. If you do consume any beverages that contain calories, such as protein shakes, be sure to account for those calories meticulously and be sure you don’t drink them in addition to your usual food intake, but in place of an equal amount of food calories. Remember, those protein shakes you might be drinking are called “meal replacements” not “free calories!” For many years I have suggested focusing primarily on whole foods rather than liquids, even protein shakes. Unlike so many other fat reduction programs, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle does not require any kind of liquid meal replacement or protein drinks and our company does not exist to sell supplements; we are here to educate you and millions of others about the realities of body fat loss. We now have even more scientific data that confirms what Burn The Fat has been teaching all along. I hope you found this helpful. You can learn more about “Burn The Fat” at www.BurnTheFat.com Train hard and expect success, Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS Fat Loss Coach www.BurnTheFat.com Reference: Effects of food form on appetite and energy intake in lean and obese young adults. International Journal of Obesity. 2007 Nov (11):1688-95. Mourao DM, Bressan J, Campbell WW, Mattes RD. Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059, USA. About the Author: Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

How to Gain Lean Muscle Without Turning into a Tub of Lard

By Tom Venuto

www.BurnTheFat.com

QUESTION:Hi Tom. I have your BURN THE FAT ebook; it’s great thanks, but now that I’m lean enough my aim is bodybuilding and muscle gain. I read your information on body types in chapter 5 of your book and it was very interesting. I am definitely an ectomorph body type. I am getting good results gaining about a pound and sometimes 2 pounds a week, but I’m pretty skinny so it’s going to take a while to get where I really want to be, but that’s fine, I’m patient and determined. My question is, can I use all the guidelines in your BURN THE FAT ebook for gaining muscle mass? ANSWER: It’s true that BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE is primarily a fat burning program and as you’re reading through the book, you’ll see that the entire manual is written with references to getting leaner.

However, with a few simple tweaks, the program can definitely be used for gaining muscle. The primary adjustment would be an increase in the calories. To gain lean body mass, you need a calorie surplus. The biggest dietary reason most people fail to gain lean muscle is that they’re simply not eating enough. Many times when they come off a fat loss program, they are completely paranoid about “losing their abs.” Of course, that’s a legitimate concern because it’s VERY easy to lose your abs if you get lazy with your diet or you think that a muscle gaining diet means eating everything in sight. To gain muscle and stay lean it takes continued discipline and dietary restraint, but the fact is, you just can’t gain any muscle if you’re afraid to eat more. The trick in gaining lean muscle without fat gain is to select a small calorie surplus. Overeating, even on clean, bodybuilding foods is going to make you gain fat along with the muscle. Gaining fat and muscle weight at the same time is commonly known as “bulking up” and that’s the old school approach to building muscle. We don’t want to do that. The whole idea is to Feed The Muscle and build lean body mass only.

Although BFFM is written with a fat loss slant, all the calorie formulas are included in chapter 6, so you can figure out exactly how many you need to lose, maintain, OR gain weight. A typical male maintains on about 2700 calories per day and a typical female at about 2100 calories, but it’s good to plug your stats into the formulas to individualize, and you need to recalibrate calories anyways, after you come off a long fat loss phase. What I would recommend for lean gains is to add a 10-15% calorie surplus on top of your maintenance level as your starting point. You will probably need a second increase in calories after a few months or after you’ve begun to add some lean mass in order to keep the lean gains coming. The only other major adjustments for gaining lean mass would be the protein-carb-fat ratios (covered in detail in chapter 8) and of course, the amount of cardio. Weight gain programs require more carbs in the macronutrient mix and less cardio. Endomorph types may need to keep 3 days of cardio in the mix to avoid losing their abs. In some cases for ectomorph “hard-gainer” body types, they should cut the cardio completely during the muscle gain phase. For the endomorph body type who tends to gain fat easily, I recommend continuing to use a carb or calorie cycling method even for the muscle gaining phase. The difference is in the number of calories. For fat loss, I typically recommend a carb cycle with a 20-30% caloric deficit for 3 days, followed by one full day at maintenance or even maintenance + 5-10%, with ALL the caloric increase coming from carbs. For lean muscle gain without fat gain, I’d recommend a cycle with 3 days at a 15% surplus, followed by 3 days at maintenance or a small caloric deficit of 5-10% below maintenance. These are just guidelines. They are not written in stone. I have seen all types of calorie cycling variations work for different people. Any non-linear calorie approach is superior, in my opinion, for keeping the gains lean.

All the other principles in BFFM, such as eating the “foods that burn fat" and avoiding the “foods that turn to fat” apply as equally to weight gain programs as they do to fat loss programs. In fact, many BFFM “graduates” quickly reached their fat loss goal using these techniques, and then with a few simple adjustments, shifted into a “muscle-gaining phase.” Same program, but one change in calorie levels. Using the BFFM techniques for muscle mass gains, most people can expect to gain 1/2 pound to 1 pound per week of lean body mass with no increase in body fat, (1/2 to 3/4 of that for women). It’s not that hard to put on the first 10-12 pounds of lean muscle. After that, gains tend to slow down a bit. These types of gains can be achieved completely natural - and in fact, natural is the only way I’d ever recommend you do muscle gaining programs. Train hard and expect success, Tom Venuto Fat Loss Coach
http://www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author: Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting:

www.burnthefat.com