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Muscle Growth & Protein

8/7/2014

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Muscle's Balancing Act
We all know that the only way to build muscle is to use the muscle. This can be done through exercise or some other form of vigorous activity. More specifically, when using the muscle under high intensity, you are breaking down muscle proteins that will later be built back up stronger. The balance of these two processes, protein breakdown and protein synthesis, is referred to as homeostasis.

Muscle homeostasis occurs without exercise all the time to maintain proper muscle utilization and health. Exercise, on the other hand, challenges this balance and, depending on what you do, can stimulate muscle hypertrophy or muscle breakdown.  

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Think of it like a Teeter Totter or SeeSaw as seen in the image above. When the two processes (protein synthesis and protein breakdown) are in balance, the muscle is replenished; but ultimately, stays the same. Although, imbalance can cause either muscle loss or muscle growth.
How Do We Build Muscle?
The biggest external factor manipulating the process of protein breakdown is exercise. If "Protein Breakdown" outweighs "Protein Synthesis" then you will lose some muscle. Although your body will synthesize protein for the next 24-48 hrs after exercise, "Protein Synthesis" will maintain or lose to its counterpart "Protein Breakdown" without any external factors to help out. Conversely, if "Protein Synthesis" outweighs "Protein Breakdown" then we will build muscle. 
So How Do We Do That?The secret external factor to help you build muscle is DIETARY PROTEIN. Digestion of foods high in protein throughout the 24-48 hr period after exercise is essential to outweighing the amount of breakdown and building muscle. More specifically, within 30 minutes of exercising is the most vital time to consume protein since your muscles are broken down and exhausted. The best way to consume protein is by eating meats, nuts, eggs, and dairy products. 
Alternatively, protein powders and supplements can also feed your muscle hunger. New studies have even shown that Chocolate Milk can be one of the best post workout drinks available. The carbohydrate and protein combination in chocolate milk is exactly what your broken down muscles need to initiate proper synthesis of new muscle.

The limiting factor to this SeeSaw diagram is that you MUST have muscle breakdown before having muscle growth. So now, in order to build muscle, the diagram has a progression that looks like this:
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In Summary
Exercise causes breakdown, which then initiates synthesis. But, the next step in the progression is dependent on the protein available. Therefore, we have to consume enough dietary protein to outweigh the amount of breakdown and cause muscle growth. So eat up and beef up! 
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Nutrition & Evolution: What to Eat

8/7/2014

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Introduction
If you've been following this blog, then you remember my last post about the struggles with our ancestral systems and the present-day diet. If you haven't read the previous post, and are interested in doing so, click this link to be directed accordingly (Nutrition & Evolution: The Big Picture).

In a nutshell, the image above summarizes the nutritional problem we face today. Survival requires using food as energy. But, contrary to the past, food is abundant. This means we can receive sufficient amounts of energy from immediate food sources and our developed ability to store energy is outdated. 

Today, there is very little use for storing energy as fat, but our bodies do it anyway! So, how do we fix it?

The Solution
The best, but most difficult solution to this dilemma is time. Time can and will supply evolution the means for eliminating this vestigial process. Some people are already experiencing this. It isn't a secret that some people are genetically incapable of storing fat and, unfortunately, others are. For those that are stuck in the later (most of the population), we need to find other means to stay healthy without preserving energy as fat for later
If we can't (necessarily) control the way our bodies function and metabolize food, then we need to focus on the part of the process that we can control, food. Take a good look again at the equation presented in the title image. What the image doesn't present is the important fact that the equation operates in succession. Meaning, digested food is first metabolized efficiently; and then, the excess is stored for later use! Therefore, by controlling what we eat, we can limit the amount of food going into fat and help speed up the disappearance of this evolutionary setback. This is the theory! So how do we turn this theory into practice?
In order to completely limit this outdated process we need to understand the factors of food that control what is being outpoured into our fat storage system:

1) How much we eat (quantity)         &         2) What we eat (nutrient density)
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                       Quantity Guide
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How Much We Eat
One of the most true statements in the world is, "Too much of anything, is bad" by Mark Twain. Mr. Twain follows this statement with a comical line that I will leave for you to pursue if you are interested, but this statement fits completely into the scheme I am presenting. You see, even if you are eating the right things, too much of it can be excessive to metabolize, causing your body to store it as fat. Overeating is one of the most prominent elements of obesity, especially here in the U.S. The National Health Service recommends eating 2000-2500 calories a day just to maintain your weight. That many calories can easily be met in one meal. Here is an image from an earlier post I did about relative serving sizes and if you are unsure where you stand when it comes to quantity and nutrition, you should try a calorie counter to help put things into perspective.

What We Eat
Now lets talk about the food we need to eat. Here at CALIsthenics we define "good food" as food that is high in nutrition. But, this can be misconceived, because some foods are high in nutrition but also high in other "useless" substances. For example, potatoes have a lot of vitamins and nutrition in their skin, but the majority of the food is actually starchy chains of sugar. This means that our body will efficiently metabolize all of the materials that are of nutritious value, but the excess, unused materials in the potato will overflow into the second part of the equation to be stored as fat. For this reason we want to focus specifically on foods that are nutrient dense! 
The ANDI Score
The ANDI Score is a scoring system used to rank foods per calorie. These are the nutrient dense foods that we want to cater our diets to since they can provide the most "bang for our buck". If we are ingesting the right foods, then we can limit the amount of "excess" calories that will outflow into the second half of our equation, fat storage. 

In Conclusion
Eating right is as much about the amount you eat, as it is about what you eat. The important thing to realize is that, although we are predisposed to store fat, we can control it. When eating right, you'd be surprised how many little calories you need to sufficiently supply your body. Being healthy is about understanding these mechanisms and then practicing them. Attached are some links with a greater list of foods and their ANDI Score for your own interest:
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-http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php
-http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthy-eating/health-starts-here/resources-and-tools/top-ten-andi-scores

So make the change today! There is an alternative healthy food to every unhealthy food out their. Find a way to eat right and counter the outdated system of storing fat for good. As always, please feel free to leave any comments, questions, or concerns and I will do my best to address them. 
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Nutrition & Evolution: The Big Picture

8/7/2014

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Introduction
Our nutritional guidelines are based on the principles that our bodies have evolved from that of a hunter/gatherer. If we reflect on the lifestyle and environment of that time, we can then better understand the conflict between our body systems, which mimic our ancestral origins, and the present day nutrition. Think about it...Survival of the fittest is one the basic principle of human nature, whether you are in the past or the present. The difference is in what is required to survive.


The Past
In the past, shelter, protection, and strength (among others) were all important elements of staying alive; but, by far, the most valuable component of surviving was food. Sufficient amounts of it exemplified the fittest survivors. Food was scarce and our ancestors would spend their entire existences hunting for it or growing it. They didn't have the convenience of a grocery store within a few blocks of their house. There were far too many days that our ancestors went without eating food. Therefore, it became essential to our survival that we develop a new system to survive under these conditions. 
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So, after hundreds of thousands of years, our bodies evolved to account for the scarcity of food. First, our body systems adapted to optimize the efficiency of our metabolism. This way we could absorb the maximum amount of nutrition from the little food we received. Beyond that, we needed something to get us threw days of zero consumption. You can already probably guess where I am going with this. Next, evolution gave us the ability to store energy for later use as fat. Consequently, our body had a backup system to ensure survival on days without food. 
The Present
Today, survival is still dependent on food, but survival of the fittest is not. Food is now abundant. It is seen and accessible around every corner. Food's value in our nature to survive has been diminished. It no longer holds the value it had in the past. As a society, we have accepted this, but biologically our systems are still set in the conditions of our ancestors.

The Big Problem
Here in lies the problem. Storing energy as fat has no purpose in today's food enriched world. It is a lingering process of our past that now serves harmful implications in today's society. Unfortunately, evolution hasn't had sufficient time to correct this, so we are forced to embrace this damaging process and fight it ourselves. How? Well, since we cannot change our predisposed system to store energy, we must target the materials that initiate its functioning, the food we eat. We need to be aware of the food we are putting into our body and its ramifications.
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Look out for my next blog post on how to limit this ancestral process. I'll go into detail about the right food to eating and how much of it you should be eating. And, as always, feel free to post any questions on this topic that you would like me to address. 
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