Fuck Yeah Kettlebells
I did not write this article. The original author is listed at the bottom for more information.
I would also like to personally state that I agree with 98% of what he has written and explained in this article. I further believe that you should check out leangains.com for more information on IF.
CLIFF NOTES:
I’ve personally experienced major results with a 16 hour intermittent fasting program. I’ve achieved visible fat loss, and measurable strength gains simultaneously. Whether you’re trying to gain muscle, lose fat, or just be a more healthful resilient person, intermittent fasting might be a lifestyle habit that makes sense for you.
Intermittent fasting has allowed me to get abs…finally.
For the past 3 months I’ve been following an intermittent fasting program. I had heard about intermittent fasting and read about it in a few articles well over a year ago, but never really got inspired to give it a try. After all, doesn’t eating inspire metabolism? Aren’t you suppose to eat many small meals throughout the day or ELSE you’ll lose all your hard earned muscle and waste all those hours of hard work? Well the reality is all those old conceptions are myths and have no scientific backing. It took bumping into a few sites and learning from a few sources for me to start to question all the ‘gym bro knowledge’ that I’ve heard for years to give it a try. After only 3 weeks, I could already tell that I’d likely be committed to this way of eating for life. I’ve already seen fat loss results while also gaining strength. This indicates a REAL body re composition where I’m gaining muscle while simultaneously losing fat. I’m feeling more energy (especially in the mornings when I’m fasting). And there’s something within my intuition that tells me this is a more healthful way of living.
Why Intermittent Fasting Makes Sense To Me
When evaluating how our bodies evolved, it’s seems reasonable to think that the human body was in a fasted state a lot of the time. Maybe not by choice, but by demand. Food is scarce in the wild. There is no tupperware, no microwaves, no packaged convenience foods. Hunting and gathering takes effort (aka exercise), and often coming up empty handed and remaining hungry would be unavoidable. This is why the human body is extremely effective at storing fat (I know from experience). In other words, in nature food was probably scarce for most of human evolution. Human beings definitely weren’t pigging out continuously, and most likely the feeding times were irregular and erratic. So what is the point? Replicating conditions of how the human body evolved will likely provide health and wellness. Read more about this concept here. So the point is, that the human body evolved to have times of being fasted. aka not fed.
I’ve read a lot of positive feedback from people who have tried to achieve fat loss this way. I’ll keep some updates.
By Nicolas Paraskevopulos
Wouldn’t it be great if the foods we eat, would mainly feed the muscle instead of being stored as fat? A study conducted by S. Devkota and D. Layman shows that if mice receive a diet high in protein, at the expense of carbohydrates, more glucose will be directed to the muscle and less will be stored as fat.
Sedentary mice were given either a high carbohydrate diet, where the energy came for 60% from carbohydrates, 12% from protein and 28% from fat. This nutrient composition is in agreement with the “general dietary recommendations” in most countries. The high protein group received the same amount of calories, but the energy came for 35% from carbohydrates, 35% from protein and 30% from fat. This diet reflected more a “Zone” type of diet.
This study showed significant differences in insulin signaling by simply decreasing the carbohydrate to protein ratio. They demonstrated that the high carbohydrate diet caused a shift in insulin signaling from skeletal muscle to fat stores. A high protein diet, at the expense of carbohydrates, made the muscles more sensitive for insulin, while it induced only slight signaling in fat tissue. In the high carbohydrate group, more glucose was stored as fat to cope with excess glucose provided by the diet. In addition, the high carb diet seemed to induce sings in the muscle that resemble insulin resistance. Apparently, the high carbohydrate diet makes the body skip the muscle as the main storage place for glucose and promotes glucose storage in fat tissue.
So, it appears that sedentary individuals that follow the “general recommendations” shift their insulin sensitivity from their muscles to their fat stores. Happily, there is a simple solution for this problem: “exercise”. By performing regular physical activity, muscle becomes more sensitive to insulin. This allows the body to tolerate more carbohydrates, which can be channeled to the muscle. Still, it seems that a diet high in protein has benefits by promoting insulin sensitivity in the muscle. It is clear from this study that nutrients are important signaling molecules and they should not be categorized solely as energy providers.
Source: Devkota, S., & Layman, D. K. (2011). Increased ratio of dietary carbohydrate to protein shifts the focus of metabolic signaling from skeletal muscle to adipose. Nutrition and Metabolism, 8
I can do 300 pounds….but not 400.
You win some, you lose some.
Maybe one day!
If these pictures dont show you the amount of heart and intensity put into yesterday’s throwdown then I dont know what will! Amazing athletes, even more amazing people <3
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(via fitspoforever)
How Bad Do You Want It?
My friend Steve Kamb at Nerd Fitness wrote a big, long post about his friend Staci’s fitness success story. I say “fitness” success story instead of “weight loss” success story because she initially lost a ton of weight through cardio/starving herself and was super weak at 117 lbs., then packed on healthy muscle through weight-training/Paleo eating and now looks AMAZING at 142 lbs.
It just goes to show you that weight is just a number, and a higher number can be better if it’s the right kind of weight!
Check out Staci’s great story at Nerd Fitness to learn more and get majorly inspired!
(via tryingtogetsmaller)
5 pounds of muscle takes up about as much space as 3 tangerines.
5 pounds of fat takes up about as much space as 3 grapefruit.
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So many people want change, growth, healthier relationships. But they don’t want to put in the work. If you want to run a marathon, you don’t just go out and run 26 miles. You have to train, every single day whether you want to or not. Lawyers don’t just become lawyers. They study thousands of…
