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Meal Frequency Facts

The claim that you need to eat many small meals per day to “stoke the metabolic” fire and accelerate fat loss and control hunger, has been part of the mainstream diet advice for quite some time.
It seems to make sense at first.

When you eat, your metabolic rate increases as it breaks down the food. Thus, if you eat every few hours, your metabolism will remain in a constantly elevated state, right? And nibbling on food throughout the day should help reduce hunger, right?

Well, like many of the myths that seem to make sense on paper, they just don’t pan out in clinical research.

Meal Frequency and Your Metabolism

Each type of macronutrient (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) requires varying amounts of energy to break down and process. This is the thermic effect of food, and is the metabolic “boost” that comes with eating.

The magnitude and duration of that boost depends on how much you eat. A small meal causes a small metabolic spike that doesn’t last very long, whereas a large meal produces a larger spike that lasts longer.

So the question, then, is if more, smaller meals per day increases total energy expenditure over a 24-hour period than fewer, larger meals.

Well, in an extensive review of literature, scientists at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research looked at scores of studies comparing the thermic effect of food in a wide variety of eating patterns, ranging from 1-17 meals per day. In terms of 24-hour energy expenditure, they found no difference between nibbling and gorging. Small meals caused small, short metabolic boosts, and large meals caused larger, longer boosts, and by the end of each day, they balanced out in terms of total calories burned.

We can also look to a study conducted by the University of Ontario, which split into two dietary groups: 3 meals per day and 3 meals plus 3 snacks per day, with both in a caloric restriction for weight loss. After 8 weeks, 16 participants completed the study and researchers found no significant difference in average weight loss, fat loss, and muscle loss.

So, while increasing meal frequency can make dieting more enjoyable for some, it doesn’t help us burn more energy.

Meal Frequency and Appetite

A study conducted by the University of Missouri with 27 overweight/obese men found that after 12 weeks of dieting to lose weight, increasing protein intake improved appetite control, but meal frequency (3 vs. 6 meals per day) had no effect.

The University of Kansas investigated the effects of meal frequency and protein intake on perceived appetite, satiety, and hormonal responses in overweight/obese men. Unsurprisingly, they found that higher protein intake led to greater feelings of fullness, and that 6 meals actually resulted in lower daily fullness than 3 meals.

On the other hand, you can find studies wherein participants were less satiated on 3 meals per day, and found that increasing meal frequency increased feelings of fullness and made it easier to stick to their diets.

The bottom line is that there are many variables involved, including psychological ones, and clinical evidence shows that it’s incorrect to conclusively state that either more or fewer meals per day for hunger control will be best for everyone.

So How Many Meals per Day, Then?

You might be surprised to learn that I often recommend that people eat fewer, smaller meals per day.

Why?

Because, in my experience coaching hundreds of people, many are like me and prefer the feeling of more, smaller meals as opposed to fewer, larger ones. I personally don’t like eating 800-1,000 calories to then feel stuffed for several hours. I much prefer a 400-calorie meal that leaves me satisfied for a few hours, followed by another smaller meal with different food, and so forth.

As the cliché goes, the best dietary protocol is the one you’ll stick to, and reducing psychological stress goes far in increasing diet compliance and thus overall effectiveness.

That said, if someone can’t or doesn’t want to eat frequently, then we work out a meal plan with fewer, larger meals that fits their preferences or lifestyle. Our hunger patterns are established by our regular meal patterns, so it’s usually easiest to work around this, not against it.

Author: Mike Matthews

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Your Hidden Source Of Strength: 3 Steps To Better Breathing

Training

by Al Kavadlo, CSCS

Some of the most difficult strength feats involve no weight at all. To master the one-armed push-up and one-legged squat, you have to dig deep and find new power sources!

All of the most powerful entities in the universe source their energy from the inside out. Our planet relies on its core heat to maintain a surface temperature warm enough to sustain life. A volcano is calm on the surface, but it could wipe out every living creature for miles should it erupt. When an atomic bomb is detonated, the explosion starts in the center and expands.

If you ever want to do a one-arm push-up, pistol squat, or any other high-level calisthenic movement—or for a heavy deadlift, for that matter—you’re going to need to learn to tap into your deep internal forces, too. It’s common in bodybuilding to attempt to isolate individual muscles or muscle groups, but in advanced bodyweight training, it’s essential to approach everything as one cohesive unit.

When performing a push-up, your chest, triceps and shoulders do the bulk of the work, but your lats, traps, and rhomboids must act as stabilizers for you to maintain proper form. Your glutes, lower back, and abs also need to work together to keep the body straight. This synergy is the difference between a good-form push-up and a bad one.

You might not notice how much your entire body is involved in a basic, familiar move like a push-up. But if you try to perform a one-arm push-up, you’ll see right away that you’re going to need to use every muscle in your entire body to make it happen. It all starts from the inside out, with your breath.

1 / Belly Breathing for Beginners

It may sound ridiculous, but most people don’t know how to breathe properly. Sure, you get enough air in your lungs to keep you alive, but when was the last time you really filled them to capacity or emptied them completely? There is a world of power in the breath! Learn to harness it, and you’ll be one step closer to bodyweight mastery.

Everyone knows the abs are a crucial part of core strength, and most are aware of the role of strong obliques. Clever trainers will also point out the importance of the lower back muscles in overall core strength, because they act as an antagonist to the abdominals. However, there is another powerful antagonist to the abs which usually gets overlooked: the diaphragm.

Your diaphragm is a powerful muscle inside your belly that controls your breath. Based on that function alone, it’s one of the single most important muscles in the body. During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts, creating space for your lungs to expand. Go ahead and take a big breath right now. Did your chest rise? It shouldn’t. Proper activation of the diaphragm draws the breath deep into the belly.

If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to breathe into your belly, try standing upright with one hand on your stomach. Then take a deep breath, trying to expand your abdomen against your hand. It may take some trial and error to figure out, so if your chest or shoulders rise, breathe out and try again.

This will make instant sense for some of you. For others, it’ll be different from what you’re accustomed to. But with practice, you should eventually be able to take a big breath into your belly without your chest or shoulders moving at all.

2 / Static Electricity

Once you figure out how to perform the basic breath, the next step is to exhale while deeply contracting your core from the inside.

There is an opening inside your throat called the glottis that can block air from exiting your lungs. Use it like a built-in pressure valve to gradually let air seep out as you tighten your abdominal contraction. Practicing this technique will help you learn to control your breath and use your diaphragm and glottis to tense your body from the inside out.

If you were to sit and try to tense every muscle one-by-one while breathing normally, you’d quickly find you didn’t have enough energy—or enough brain space—to go around. However, if your energy comes from within, it is possible to achieve a kind of full-body tension that ties together everything from your feet to your fingers.

Probably the best way to practice and develop this type of total body tension is by performing static holds. Try using the breathing technique we just practiced during an isometric plank. Get onto your elbows and toes with your body in a straight line from the back of your head to your heels. Focus on your breath and begin squeezing your whole body as you exhale: abs, glutes, inner thighs, quads—everything. The more you can tense your entire body, the less any one part will have to shoulder the burden.

Once you get the feel for creating total-body tension, you’ll soon be ready to transfer that newfound power to harder moves like L-sits or elbow levers. When you advance to more difficult holds, don’t be surprised if some muscles are involved in ways you didn’t expect. New movements can also make you sore in surprising places. I once strained my groin while practicing the human flag!

3 / Waiting to Exhale

Breath control is great for static holds, but it’s also fundamental when practicing difficult dynamic exercises such as the pistol squat and one-arm push-up. If you feel like you should have the strength to perform these maneuvers, and yet they still make you feel weak when you try them, more powerful breathing could help you to get over the hump.

The valsalva maneuver is a well-known breathing technique in powerlifting circles, and it can be incredibly useful in bodyweight training as well. The technique involves using your diaphragm to create a bubble of air in your belly, which stabilizes the trunk during heavy lifting. Because you have to hold your breath while you do it, the technique is often discouraged by fitness professionals. In fact, the first time I ever saw the term “valsalva maneuver” was in a popular personal training textbook warning about the dangers of using the technique for barbell training.

The truth is the valsalva maneuver is useful for the right person in the right scenario. However, there is a slight risk of fainting when using the technique during a heavy lift, so folks with a history of fainting, high blood pressure, or both, might be advised to avoid it. However, when we’re talking bodyweight, the risk of self-harm is far less than for, say, a max bench press. I’ve seen plenty of people fall on their butt when learning a pistol, but I haven’t seen a single one lose consciousness.

Put It All Together ///

To use the valsalva maneuver during a one-arm push-up or pistol squat, inhale into your belly during the lowering phase of the movement. Hold your breath briefly at the bottom and keep it there as you begin coming up. Wait to exhale until you are just shy of halfway up—the “sticking point,” as it’s often known. The air bubble in your belly will help stabilize your spine during the critical transition point.

The breath need not be held more than a second or two for each rep. Any longer could have adverse effects, but the movement shouldn’t require any longer a hold than that anyway. It may seem obvious since we’re talking about difficult movements like one-arm push-ups and squats, but the valsalva technique works best when applied to low rep ranges. Doing lots of consecutive reps in this manner could cause an unsafe spike your blood pressure.

Though learning to control your breath can help you tap into your total body strength, there’s no magic bullet here, or anywhere else in the world of fitness. These techniques can help, but there will never be any way to achieve advanced bodyweight feats without work. It takes time and practice to achieve moves like the one-arm push-up, pistol squat, or human flag, but if you put in the time and get to know your body, it’s a journey worth taking.

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Eat to Look Lean

Nutrition, Training

When you’re at your ideal weight and want to look toned, you need the right diet and exercise plans

Q: I’m at the weight I want to be, and now I want to show off my muscles. What should I be eating?

A: This is a great example of how achieving your “ideal” scale weight doesn’t necessarily equate to the look that you want. We often get very focused on having the scale display a particular number when we get on it but don’t realize that when we hit that number, our bodies may not look how we’d envisioned they would.

In her most recent book, Drop Two Sizes, 2012 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year Rachel Cosgrove notes that she consistently sees women drop two sizes with the scale only showing two to four pounds of weight loss. This is one of the reasons why it is very important to track your progress toward a weight loss/body composition goal via measures other than the scale such as pictures, girth measurements (waist, hips, etc), and body fat percentage.

Back to your question specifically: If you are at the body weight that you want but want to show off your muscles more, then you will need to lose a little more body fat while then adding on muscle. This will allow you to maintain your weight while giving you a leaner muscular look.

You can’t do this with diet alone. Resistance training is a key component, as if you want to show off your muscles, you are going to need to build them up a little. In addition, weight training provides a superior level of fat burning compared to traditional cardio training.

In her book, Cosgrove recommends that women in your situation do two or three full-body strength training workouts and one or two metabolic interval-style routines a week. The strength program should consist of compound movements performing all of the following movement patterns: squat, bend, push, pull, twist, lunge, and balance.

From a dietary perspective, this is a perfect situation for carb cycling. Carb cycling, as the name suggests, involves cycling your carbs between high and low days throughout the week. This also leads to calorie cycling as well, so that on days you train with weights, you will eat more calories and carbohydrates. These become muscle-building days. On days that you do interval cardio or don’t train, you will eat fewer calories and carbs. These become fat-loss days, as your body will need to pull more from its energy stores since you won’t be providing its normal quota of fuel.

The simplest (and my favorite) way to cycle carbs is by doing so based on types of foods. On high-carb days, eat meals that contain oats, rice, whole-grain pasta, sweet potatoes, and quinoa, and make sure to include fruits and vegetables with each meal. Then on low-carb days, abstain from those types of carbs, opting for beans, fruits, and vegetables as your primary carbohydrate sources.

This makes it easy to modulate the carbohydrates and calories of your diet since carbohydrate-based foods like oats, rice, whole grain pasta, sweet potatoes, and quinoa are innately more carb- and calorie-dense than fruits or vegetables. For example, 1 cup brown rice contains 200 calories and 43 grams of carbs, while 1 cup raspberries has only 64 calories and 15g carbohydrates and 1 cup cooked spinach has 41 calories and 7g carbohydrates. The volume of the foods is the same—a cup—but the calorie and carbohydrate contents are very different.

Regardless of the day, you should have protein (eggs, chicken, fish, tofu, etc) at every meal. Your weekly schedule might look like this:

Sunday: Off from training. Low carb/calorie day
Monday: Resistance training. High carb/calorie day
Tuesday: Interval cardio. Low carb/calorie day
Wednesday: Resistance training. High carb/calorie day
Thursday: Interval cardio. Low carb/calorie day
Friday: Resistance training. High carb/calorie day
Saturday: Interval cardio. Low carb/calorie day

Put Cosgrove’s exercise recommendations into play combined with my simple carb cycling approach, and you’ll be on your way to achieve the look you want.

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What to do When You Think You Might be Injured

Training

by Keith Scott

Not all injuries are really injuries.

Huh? What the hell does that mean?

It’s simple…over the years I have “magically cured” a lot of people’s injuries quickly because so many injuries are not really injuries, rather they are muscle spasms or knots that are causing pain and dysfunction.

This is not to say that these knots don’t cause major pain and problems…they do. It also doesn’t mean that they are to be ignored, because many spasms or knots are a sign that either something was tweaked and needs to be fixed, or that the shit is about to hit the fan (in other words, they are a warning signal to you that you are really going to get hurt.)

Muscle spams or knots can occur anywhere and to anyone. I don’t think there is a single person alive (maybe other than a baby) that doesn’t live with spasms or knots of some kind. Not all are going to kill you or cause problems. I have them in my neck and traps almost every day of my life as many people do.

I am talking more about the spontaneous knot or spasm that shows up after a training session that causes so much discomfort or pain that you think you have an injury. The truth is, you just might.

Knots occur naturally when you get injured (strain, sprain, etc.), for example, almost 100% of the time. So you have the pull (or strain) and also knots to go along with it. It is the body’s way of protecting itself.   Sometimes knots occur for what seems like no good reason at all.

Be Proactive

I almost always tell people to foam roll, use a LAX ball, get a deep tissue massage, ART, etc… when there is pain or an injury.

(Note from Jay: I find the Voodoo Floss Bands to be extremely helpful with elbow, knee and ankle issues)

Take care of the knot or knots and you are at least half way to feeling much better. In some cases, getting rid of the knot might be all you need to do.

So, without even knowing what you did, just dealing with your soft tissue (i.e. knots, spams, adhesions) can really make a difference. So why not make that part of your plan? It really can’t hurt in the majority of the cases.

Avoid Movement Deficiencies & Dysfunction

The other thing to realize is that having knots or spasms can and will cause you to have movement deficiencies and cause dysfunction. When you are knotted up badly, you won’t function normally. This can cause pain, weakness and over time other problems.

The rotator cuff is a prime example. Many guys have major knots and adhesions in the cuff and don’t even realize it. It is many times the cause of shoulder pain and problems.

With my baseball guys I will take about 5 minutes at the end of their session and work the knots out of the rotator cuff and almost 100% of the time, tightness, pain and weakness are gone. They feel great and also report that they throw better and faster the next day.

It isn’t magic, rather it is what I call “Resetting the cuff” so it functions the way it is supposed to function. Add some proper strengthening to the routine and they tend to maintain this over time.   This is something that we can all do anywhere in the body.

This is why soft tissue work is so important. We don’t always do it enough or correctly, but something is better than nothing.   So, back to the original point…”Not all injuries are injuries.”

The take home message is that when you are in pain or feel like you just injured yourself (or both) you may have an injury. You also might just have some spasms. Either way, you will have spams and knots.

And, either way, taking care of those spasms will help you feel a lot better. Sometimes it can get rid of the problem in an instance. Sometimes it just makes things feel better.

***Don’t assume that you are NOT injured and you just have spams. Always assume that you might have an injury, but don’t panic either. That is why soft tissue work is vital and in many cases can be a great self-diagnostic tool too.

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7 Common Dieting Mistakes

Nutrition

Fat loss is a long, slow journey. It’s made even slower by dieting errors. Don’t fall into the same traps that I did! Read my mistakes, learn from them, and your fitness goal will be a reality much sooner.

by Karina Baymiller

Whether you’re just starting out on your journey toward a bangin’ new bod, or you know the ins and outs of health and fitness, you’ve probably made some mistakes in your nutrition. When it comes to shedding fat, we often fall into a trap hoping we are doing the right thing. In reality, we may be doing ourselves more harm than good.

There’s a lot of nutrition and diet information out there—it’s easy to get lost in the mountains of tips, rules, and new terminology. For all you know, “Paleo” could be a new type of deadlift. When I first started trying to lose weight, I had no idea what I was doing. I read what I could and made a lot of errors. And though making mistakes and learning from them is part of the process, you can make the road a little less bumpy with some good information. Here are seven mistakes I’ve personally made. I want to share them with you so your road to fat loss is as smooth as possible.

1 / Buying “Fat-Free” Food

If you find yourself buying food that’s labeled as “diet,” “fat-free,” or “sugar-free,” drop the package and run the other direction immediately. Many people see these buzz words and assume that what they are buying must be healthy. In reality, these words usually mean the food you’re about to purchase is anything but healthy.

When food companies remove a nutrient like fat to make a food “fat-free,” they have to add something back to make it palatable. These flavor-boosting ingredients generally include a hodgepodge of chemicals you can’t pronounce, refined carbohydrates, and ample amounts of sugar.

Together, these additives can be detrimental to your fat loss goals. Stay away from the processed, packaged, and pre-made foods. Stick with fresh, whole foods with minimal ingredients.

2 / Not Eating Enough

If you want to lose fat, the first logical step is to cut your calorie intake, right? It makes sense then, that the more calories you cut the more fat you lose. Wrong! Seriously cutting your calories may work for a short period of time, but your metabolism will slowly shut down and eventually come to a screeching halt.

If that’s not bad enough, when your caloric intake is too low, your body begins to use your hard-earned muscle as fuel, a process known as catabolism. If it happens, it could further hinder your fat loss. I realize that eating more sounds counterproductive to a fat loss goal, but trust me, more food is usually better. If you cut your calories too much for too long, you’re not going to see results.

3 / Going to Extremes

We live in an all-or-nothing world. For a lot of people, dieting is definitely no exception. I’ve heard it all: “You have to eat 10 times per day for fat loss!” “Make sure you get 600 grams of carbs.” “Never eat fruit or dairy products.” “You need these 30 supplements to be successful.” Sure some of these things may work for some people, but whatever happened to the middle ground? From my experience, going to extremes got me nowhere but right back where I started.

If you’re in this for the long haul, like you should be, remember that balance and moderation are keys to your success. My suggestion: Start somewhere in the middle. Slowly add or subtract until you find the right balance for you.

4 / Hopping on the Latest Fad Diet

If you’ve tried The Hormone Diet, the cabbage soup diet, the 3-Day Diet, the Blood Type Diet, or some crazy juicing thing, you need to listen up. Fad diet advertisements try to suck you in by presenting the “latest research” and showing stories of success. Generally, fad diets work. But, they only work for a short peiod of time. When you go back to normal life, don’t expect your body to join you.

The majority of these diets proves unhealthy, extreme, and shouldn’t be practiced for an extended period of time. I always tell my clients: “Don’t do anything you can’t or won’t keep up for the rest of your life.” Healthy eating should be a lifestyle change, and unless you see yourself eating cabbage soup everyday for the rest of your life, stay away from fads.

5 / Clocking Out (and I Mean All the Way Out) for the Weekend

I’ve been guilty of this on a few occasions. OK, you caught me—it happens almost every weekend. A cheat meal is perfectly fine, and can be beneficial mentally, and physically. But if you clock out at 5 p.m. on Friday from both the office and your diet, we may have a slight problem.

Stuffing your face all weekend with everything you didn’t eat during the week will not only slow your progress, but can stop it. Sometimes, it can even completely reverse what you’ve worked so hard for. Depending on your goals and progress, one cheat meal, sometimes two, is usually OK. Get back to eating your healthy foods as soon as possible. Don’t allow your cheat meal turn into a free-for-all cheat weekend.

6 / Ignoring What Your Body Tells You

Believe it or not, we have hormones that regulate functions telling us we’re hungry and when we need to stop eating. When we stop listening to these signals and eat right through the “I’m satisfied” zone and speed into the “I’m stuffed” zone, problems like obesity happen.

On the other side of the coin, eating on such a rigorous and inflexible schedule voids these hormonal signals as well. Sometimes, we get so caught up eating exactly 300 calories every three hours that we forget to listen to what our body is saying. I’m not saying throw everything you know out the window and stuff your face all day long, but when is the last time you really stopped and listened to your body’s hunger signals?

Are you hungry when the clock strikes every three hours? Are you so hungry you could eat the paint off the walls? Are you still hungry when you finish your meal? Experiment with relying on your body, not the clock to tell you when to eat. You may be surprised by what you learn.

7 / Forgetting to Live Life

Do you find yourself obsessing over every gram of broccoli you put in your mouth? Do you eat tilapia and asparagus at least four times per day? Do you have a panic attack if you can’t eat “Meal 4” exactly 2-1/2 hours after “Meal 3?” If so, it may be time to stop, slow down, and breathe. Don’t let the quest for health become an unhealthy obsession.

Call breakfast what it is—don’t say “Meal 1.” Go out with friends, eat a piece of chocolate; listen to your hunger signals. Smile, relax, and have fun. Don’t forget to live your life!

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