After a grueling 2-mile ride on my girlfriend’s?cruiser bike (?Mojito?) while talking on a cell phone ? and carrying a large load (1 book) in the basket on my way to the post office, I figured now was a perfectly good time to lay out some definitive 180 thoughts on the topic of exercise.
On many other occassions I have talked about triglycerides. Yes, the blood level can be revealing, but more important is the amount of triglyceride ? or fat, that hangs out in the muscles. This is referred to as intramuscular triglyceride, or intramyocellular fat.
It appears that this intramyocellular fat is the primary driver of insulin resistance, and also leptin resistance which increases appetite and reduces metabolism/body temperature even if you are overweight and eating a high-calorie diet (which should normally trigger feedback mechanisms that bring your weight down, like a rise in metabolism and decrease in appetite).
For those uninitiated, low body temperature is a primary focus at 180D? the kind that isn’t related to legitimate thyroid gland dysfunction (much less common). The reasons why body temperature is such an important indicator of overall health and how it can most effectively be brought to normal is all laid out in my book Diet Recovery. Anyway, let’s have a little chat about how exercise impacts this type of fat, how it therefore impacts insulin and leptin resistance, and where exercise figures into the big picture of health attainment and maintenance?
Endurance Exercise
Endurance exercise, something I’m very familiar with after over a dozen years of being an obsessive hiker and backpacker (I actually worked as a Wilderness Ranger for 7 seasons, hiking 500-1,000 miles during the summer, and wrote a book about backpacking many years ago), is a perfect example of a Catch-22.
We know that lots of exercise burns intramuscular fat and is insulin sensitizing. That is why everybody and their uncle in mainstream health is infatuated with it. We’ve known since forever that doing a ton of exercise is a good counter to a diet that otherwise would result in lots of intramuscular fat storage (high-fat, high-omega 6, high-sugar, high-calorie). It is, and the single greatest reason that it has been found to be beneficial is probably the ability to increase insulin sensitivity.
But not so fast. Long-duration cardio or endurance exercise makes the body more proficient at storing intramuscular fat, because intramuscular fat just so happens to comprise a large percentage of the bodily fuel used to do this type of exercise. Generally speaking, the higher the intensity level and the shorter duration of the exercise, the higher the ratio of glucose to fat used as fuel and vice versa. And, after a couple hours of exercise, much of the glucose is used up, and the ratio of fat burned to glucose burned becomes even higher.
So, in a nutshell, working 10-hour days which often included more than 15 miles of hiking at moderate intensity levels (right in the perfect heart rate range for optimal fat burning), had the following impact on me AND most of my co-workers (generally speaking)?
1) Go from not exercising much to exercising a ton ? lose fat at an incredibly rapid rate, can get away with anything diet-wise (I used to eat a half dozen cake doughnuts and a quart of chocolate milk for my first breakfast of the day), feel awesome
2) Get kind of tired and drained after a few months, with greater proneness to illness and injury – in my case an increase in digestive problems,?have a drop in metabolism (my morning body temperature dropped from 97.9 to 96.2, resting pulse into the 30’s and low-40’s), and no longer lose an ounce exercising 10 hours a day, even if you are not eating that much food? but note, physical conditioning is superhuman
3) Stop exercising at the end of the season and have ravenous hunger, lethargy (I always promised myself I’d ‘stay in shape? after the season but went 0 for 12 during my avid hiking years), and gain fat at an incredibly rapid rate ? usually eclipsing my weight prior to the beginning of the season
Of course, part of this is due strictly to calorie deficit. It’s impossible to eat as many calories as you burn, no matter how hard you try to stuff yourself. One season I consumed 2 pounds of butter, 4 gallons of whole milk, 10 pounds of fatty beef and pork, and a heck of a lot more each week and still lost 10 pounds of body fat in about 5 weeks. I figure I must have eaten about 5,000 calories per day during this time but burned an average of 6,000, for a daily 1,000 calorie deficit. Get lean enough, and this will crush your metabolism, which brings up an important point?
Endurance exercise slows down your metabolism!
Most people think that burning more calories means that your metabolism is higher. This is not true. Driving your car more often does not change its gas metabolism. Rather, it works something like this?
In my case, as a hiking fanatic for 5 months out of the year, I might have started the season with a 1:1 appetite to metabolism ratio (AM Ratio) at 175 pounds while sedentary. I was burning 3,000 calories at rest, and had the appetite for 3,000 calories each day on average.
By the 5th week I’d weigh 165 pounds, but let’s say now that my?resting metabolism dropped to 2,500 while I burned 3,500 through exercise for a total of 6,000 calories per day. I could maintain weight eating twice as many calories, but my actual metabolism had dropped, hence the fall in body temperature (more significant) and heart rate (less significant ? and can just be a sign of improved cardiovascular efficiency).
But no matter what, I never would lose weight below 165 (I did my first season, going from 170 to 155, but my body adapted to never let that happen again).
As you get more and more ?in shape? for endurance exercise, your body is able to do increasingly more difficult and longer-duration exercise while burning fewer and fewer calories. Testosterone levels drop along with your resting metabolism, and you lose muscle mass as well ? making you able to perform endurance exercise more efficiently.
So, the irony is that to be a really good endurance athlete, you must have as little muscle as possible, store intramuscular triglyceride for fuel very efficiently, and burn as little calories as possible while exercising. These are the precise adaptations that occurred with me and my co-workers, which is why, doing ever-increasing amounts of work in a work day as we got in better and better shape, our rate of weight loss would slow and then stop completely.
Basically, if you want to get to where you can exercise 10 hours a day without losing any weight, burn fewer calories at rest AND during exercise,?and develop an unprecedented ability to store fat eating to appetite if you stop exercising, then I highly recommend endurance exercise. It is unparalleled for making your body a fat storage machine. I would say that by the end of the season my?resting metabolism was probably near 2,000 calories per day instead of 3,000, and my appetite was probably around 4,000 calories per day ? 2:1 AM Ratio, which leads to rapid fat storage if you are not a believer in willpower like me.
Unfortunately, most exercise fanatics point to what happens during the first phase of exercise ? an improvement in insulin sensitivity from burning all that muscle fat, fat loss, improved cardiovascular performance, and the ability to eat more food and still lose weight.
What they ignore, is that the vast majority (call it 19 outta 20)?of people that have insulin resistance and are overweight DO NOT continue long-duration exercise for the rest of their lives once they start it. Those who start and then stop, take 1 step forward and 2 steps back, just like someone who goes on a low-carb diet and then quits it at some point (also call it 19 out of 20 people), which has almost an identical impact (you burn a higher percentage of fat to glucose for fuel, and thus store it in muscle better, you raise cortisol ? which is also fattening and happens with endurance exercise, and so on). More on cortisol and weight gain in this video:
Grand conclusion:
If you want to be able to eat to appetite and exercise as a leisure activity, solely for pleasure, while being healthy, insulin sensitive, and not gain weight ? then endurance exercise will take you farther from that destination. I don’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.
If you want to be a prisoner of exercise, dependent on doing hours of it per day to maintain your weight and be insulin sensitive, then endurance exercise is your ticket.
P.S. ? I still like hiking. It is an enjoyable activity for me. But I do not recommend doing it habitually for several hours on end ? more than a couple times per week. Every time I do lots of hiking my weight set point increases. One example is that when I tried overfeeding for the first time after not hiking for 2 years, my weight increased from 174 to 179 and then started creeping back down. After a summer of very intense hiking, where my weight bottomed out briefly at 168, I tried overfeeding again at the end of the season and my weight went up to 194.5 (thanks in part to a 2-week blood sugar monitoring vegan stint, which was, in hindsight, lower in calories than I first estimated and sent my appetite into the stratosphere).
Picture?of?Square Top Mountain from a hike almost exactly 1 year ago – Wind River Range, Wyoming…
I made it!! Numero uno!
You don't know what you're gettin into here. You're gettin into sacred territory talkin about people's beloved cardio. It's like talkin about their momma's. I'll give anyone 2:1 odds there will be 350+ comments.
Hit the cardio and the low carb haha… Good luck to you Matt.
All jokes aside great post. I'll definitely be mentioning it to others.
This post makes a lot of sense to me and I've seen it happen lately in my personal life. My husband has a job the requires mild-to-moderate physical activity for several hours a day, and during the past couple of years it's really started to take its toll. Matt, what the heck do you suggest for someone in his position who can't exactly "get off the treadmill?" Is there anyway to counteract this effect? Aside from getting another job, which isn't really available at this point (but we're workin on it!).
It seemed like a twist of fate at first, I thought I just had the worst genetics in the universe, but now I think I am meant to be lazy (sort of) and healthy? I mean when I run (try to) I wiggle my bum and cause hysterics in anyone lucky enough to see the sight AND my knee sockets give up on me, AND I pay for it for about a fortnight. I love to hike, I love to venture alone, I have found it exhilarating to walk alone for seven day knowing that I am possibly in grave danger (following my mothers long tried explanation that axe wielding murderers might get me in the night). I feel like I have achieved so much after such bouts of walking. However it doesn't seem like I am really lucky there either (walking mountains) as the drawback is, I now have literally cracking joints. Some months I find my leg goes dead, and I just can't walk (literally look crippled for a few days or weeks). So to conclude this means, sprinting is a no no, as is hiking. So got any suggestions; climbing rock walls perhaps?
194.5!
Wow, that's a lot of beef.
or ham.
depends on how you look at it.
xo deb
@ momma
I would say a lot of human bum cheek. . .
Wow, thanks Matt! That's really helpful as I've been trying to figure out how to get exercise back into my life again, helping me loose some weight without losing my higher basal body temperature.
I love the feeling that intense yoga gives me, so it's also for pleasure and mental health that I want to have it in my life regularly. Power yoga is pretty much the only thing that allows me to "be in the moment".
Oh and I got a good friend that was in Ballantyne's original transformation contest years ago. He placed in it I think. He's the one that looks like an ape before and a hairless chiahuahua after. What a douchebag.
http://www.transformationcontest.com/adam.shtml
Just more proof that I really have been doing everything wrong most of my life. LOL. My mom owned an aerobics studio in the 80s so cardio was hammered into my brain! LOL.
That was soon joined by 20 years of dieting – first low calorie, then low carb. :-/
While I'm here…If HED/RRARF for a few months is only making minor noticeable changes, are there other sources to look into? I've seen people mention other programs on here that seem similar (or have similar goals). I think I may be one of those that takes a long time to heal since I've been messed up for so long.
And since I've already put on weight in the short time I've been doing HED (and I was about to go low carb again to lose a few pounds when I ran across this site anyway), my vanity doesn't want me to keep going for much longer in this direction. LOL. But I do really want my health back.
Schwarzbein – that was one of them. And I think the other was a guy. Are they worth looking into (and then tweaking with what I know from here)?
just got turned onto your blog Matt. Lots of interesting info here. I am currently looking for a way out of being a slave to cardio without putting on any weight (I am currently at the weight I want to stay at but think I could do it more efficiently than what I do now). Can't wait for the follow up to this post. Chris
just got turned onto your blog Matt. Lots of interesting info here. I am currently looking for a way out of being a slave to cardio without putting on any weight (I am currently at the weight I want to stay at but think I could do it more efficiently than what I do now). Can't wait for the follow up to this post. Chris
Kelly Baggett has an interesting article on muscle fiber type and metabolic efficiency…
http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/muscletyping.html
Very good post!
Excessive Cardio is one of the best and quickest ways to hypothyroidism.
Matt I think you need to define endurance exercise… is it regular steady exercise over a certain heart rate or are you including walking, a job which is physical etc? I mean until recently most people were much more active on a daily basis but healthier and slimmer.
Also wanted to say that marathon training always caused fat gain for me too.
Hey everyone
I know this is scarcely related to exercise, but I have been wondering lately about why it is often suggested that you wash your rice before cooking? What is it exactly you want to wash out of them? Some post i found around the net suggested that you washed excess starch from the rice, but is that even favorable when you want to eat as much starchy stuff as possible?
And Matt, great post as always! Why wasn't your backpacking book included when i bought the whole 180 bookshelf?
John-
Thanks for that article. Excellent, and his follow-up was great as well.
For those who don't read it, some key parts about it is that hypothyroidism and slow-twitch muscle fibers like that used for endurance exercise are synonymous, while hyperthyroidism (high leptin and insulin and testosterone as in the overfed state) is synonymous with muscularity, power, and athleticism.
Jedi-
Physical activity is great and very healthy. I'm not promoting sitting around all day for health, not by a long shot.
I would classify the type of endurance exercise that really gets people into trouble is that done at a hard enough rate to cause a person to breathe heavily and lasting for more than an hour.
Running is the worst because of all the extra joint damage and inflammation that accompanies it.
Cycling is a better alternative but is very catabolic to muscles not being used (upper body), not to mention it evaporates bone mass.
However, a person could probably pursue endurance activities, and as long as he/she ate really, really hard and combined it with some short-duration explosive exercise – could probably limit the damage.
Jenna-
We'll get into that in the next post. There are plenty of things you can do.
Stephanie C.-
Ray Peat would be the other person advocated by some 180 followers. I think you should look at RRARF as something you do in a much more acute manner. You might find some of the exercise info. helpful as well, and I've had people contact me to share increases in body temp., feeling of well-being, and body composition from doing 2minutes of treadmill sprints twice per week.
Elizabeth-
Hard to say what could be done other than eating and sleeping really well. I was fortunate that my physical job only lasted 4-5 months at a time. If I had to keep that up 12 months per year for years I would have probably become quite ill from it.
Ha ha. Thanks Kaspar. The backpacking book might have had some contradictory nutrtitional messages, although I was advocating high-calorie intakes even before I began intensive research. I started writing that book at the ripe age of 23 and more or less a vegetarian.
Oh and Johnny… Hilarious. Loved how Ballantyne's program made all of his body hair fall off.
Matt,
why would a physical job be bad? Didn't you describe in your article how the body gets used to the physical stress and becomes very efficient… So a physical job wouldn't be a problem, only once you stop working and do no physical excercise to recompense?
I'm thinking of old Japanese people who worked hard all there life and never became fat, even in their old age when they retired… Some people here in Germany are like that, too, but obesity is much more common in older people here.
Also, what about martial arts training? I practiced muay thai for 1.5h three times a week when I was younger. Would that count as endurance training? Certainly was breathing hard…
Yeah, I think the hair removal program was an extra $9.95. And it probably accounted for at least a few pounds of the lost weight.
Thanks, Matt! I would like to try the sprints, but I have exercise induced asthma so I've been afraid to try (and I'm kind of lazy, and I live in insufferably hot and humid Fl. See all the good excuses I can come up with? LOL.) I was hoping the diet changes would help the asthma, but I've seen no improvement at all in that area. I guess I might have to do those Buteyko exercises after all.
In the past few years whenever I've tried to do exercise, it wears me out for the rest of the day – it's like it took all that my body had for the day. So I've sort of become a computer chair potato. LOL. Maybe it's time to try again, though. :o)
Buteyko is well worth it. And just breathe through your nose, especially while exercising. It’s really helped my asthma.
"Cycling is a better alternative but is very catabolic to muscles not being used (upper body), not to mention it evaporates bone mass."
So true. My legs are way out of balance with the rest of me. I'd love to be able to do pull ups or chin ups, they look quite enjoyable to me, but I don't think I can do even one. Just hang there thinking move you stupid arms! How can you build up to doing them? Push ups? I can do those.
Hans, I practice some Muay Thai along with the rest of my fight training and although there is a lot of endurance involved I consider a good deal of the training interval and "anaerobic". Repetitive movement and firing of the muscles in short bursts, staggered rhythms, are more in tune with fight training. Not a steady pace. There are rests interspersed also. At least IMO :)
Matt,
You did a really good job in this post of putting it into terms the layman will actually get.
HIIT types of training have been in style for a while now, but most people still don't get it and insist on spending their time on a tread mill. Maybe after reading this they will think twice before training their body to store fat.
anonymous re pullups
When I couldn't do them yet, I did this: I used a stool or something so I could hang on the bar in the upper position of a pullup. I mean the position you would reach once you've pulled yourself up. So… you will want to try and hold yourself in that position (if that is a problem.) Practice to increase the time you can remain in the upper position, and after you can do that for some 20 seconds or so, or whatever you think appropriate (or right away, if staying in the upper position is not a problem) lower yourself somewhat and pull up again. Try to lower yourself as much as you comfortably can and practice pullups from that position. Try to go lower with time.
Tommy,
yeah I got some rest in between rounds (we practiced everything by the clock, resting during breaks) though my trainer would have preferred us to jump rope during breaks… not sure if that was good advice, anyway nobody did that except for him sometimes.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/phys-ed-the-men-who-stare-at-screens/'src=me&ref=general
More fuel to the argument that a 4x week running habit will kill you (faster).
Wow, I cannot wait to do follow-up posts to this.
Hans, martial arts training, various athletic training, etc. are IDEAL forms of exercise. It's not about elevated heart rate or doing it for 1.5 hours (3 times per week, this is nothing – I was doing like 30 hours of steady aerobics per week to get the full fattening effect).
Rather, athletic movements, asymetrical movements, explosive movements, fast movements, etc. that utilize fast twitch muscle fibers and activation of whole kinetic chains of muscle groups is what improves the metabolism. Think sprinting, jumping, plyometrics, gymnastics, dancing, tennis and other sports, martial arts – or even yoga and pilates due to the fact that they work all of the muscle systems with a variety of movements, have balance elements, etc.
Standard slow, steady-rep weight training with single planes of motion is bad for the metabolism too without complementary exercises.
Stephanie-
Yes, I've been very limited as to my ability to do high-intensity training as well – having exercise-induced asthma sneak up on me at age 18 and persist ever since (unless I am in a warm, moist climate at lower elevations – then it disappears).
Don't feel like you have to do sprints either. Technically, they are probably the ultimate single form of exercise – but in reality sprinting is very dangerous from an injury point of view.
Some of the exercise gurus I mentioned in this post literally recommend 8-minute workouts. This will probably leave you feeling great and improve metabolism if you slowly and sustainably go at it while working within your limitations.
Seriously, you can get results from doing a simple round of morning exercises that entails some squats or lunges in your living room (for speed), a couple of abs/core movements, and some pushups on your knees that takes, at most, 10 minutes and isn't so hard to give you an asthma attack.
Then you build from there, but always keep it easy enough and short enough that there is no reason whatsoever to come up with all kinds of reasons for avoidance (which anyone can relate to).
@Anon on pull-ups. Hans had some good thoughts. Arthur Jones would have people that could not do pullups/chinups, do negatives. Step up on a stool to get to the top position and then lower yourself down under control, which should be a little easier than holding in the top position. Negative strength is stronger than static strength which is stronger than concentric strength. Concentric strength is positive portion of an exercise, so for chins, it would be portion of the exercise where you are pulling yourself up. Good advice Hans.
@Stephanie C, how much exercise induces your asthma? Keep in mind that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is harder exercise with periods of lower intensity exercise. The Tabata Protocol (which is VERY intense) uses max sprints for 20 seconds followed by lower intensity for 10 seconds, done repeatedly for 4 minutes. The first time I did Tabata's, I thought that it was going to be too easy after the first few intervals, but was ready to die by the 4th minute! You don't need to go that intense. You can walk for a set time period and then just stand there for the lower intensity portion. Interval times are not set in stone…Tabata's are 20s/10s, but you could do 10/20, or 30/15, or 45/15…whatever allows you to vary the intensity. You may be able to get do a "light" version of HIIT without inducing asthma, BUT CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST. And don't forget your inhaler if you decide to try it. Good luck!
Hooray for tennis!
@Madmuhhh
Pussy! Lol!
Pull-up hero…
The man himself, the legend, recently did a video on how to progress into doing a pull-up if you are incapable of doing one…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76HjVOoUX6U&feature=player_embedded
Will-
Damn them Tabata's would kill me and Stephanie!
Actually, when I've been running sprints (3 times total, watch out Usain!), I'll do anywhere from 5-15 second sprints followed by 2-3 full minutes of walking. My total sprint time totals 60-120 seconds, and it's more than enough.
But like I said, it doesn't have to be sprints – and any exercise program should be progressive. For some people it may take an entire year to work up to running a single sprint. You do what you can, and don't push it to the point that it's unenjoyable.
Matt…exactly! The intervals aren't set in Stone (hey, that's funny!)and neither is the intensity. Alternating fast and slow walking is still a version of interval training.
Olympic sprinters may take 1-2 hours just to complete a handful of sprints. During their [long] rest periods, they sometimes do jumps or hip mobility work.
By the way, the point of the above comment was to point out the fact that high intensity, long rest interval exercise seems to "protect" or help the metabolism as athletes such as sprinters or weightlifters lose weight if they discontinue training. Obviously low-moderate intensity is a negative, but I wonder about things such as interval and/or circuit training.
Also, a great benefit of high intensity (heavy lifts and/or short sprints with long rest) is that exercise amount is almost self-regulating: If you do too much, your performance decreases–too little, and the same happens.
Hooray for tennis! @Matthias x2 I have been playing tennis around 4 times a week this summer and just loving it, beats my marathon training any day, though I probably need to lift some weights again now after two month hiatus. However one BIG thing this site has done for me is not only learning to eat again for pleasure i stead of counting macros but also exercise for pleasure instead of lifting wts out of fear.
The first time I did Tabata's about 3 years ago, I did them using burpees as fast as I can for each 20 second interval. Talk about a killer!!!
But that 4 minutes is worth more than any 45 or 60 minute run IMO. I sometimes set my gymboss (timer) for 5 minutes with one minute rest and sprint full out 60 yards up a steep hill and jog down for 5 minute rounds. 2-3 rounds (10-15 minutes) is easy to squeeze into a busy day (or even one round) and I get more out of it than a long slower and steadier paced workout.
Matt, off topic but I was curious about what you knew about ionized water. I have had a really remarkable experience drinking it, losing a lot of water retention and my blood sugars going lower, as well as my blood pressure. Any knowledge about this?
Matt,I have been wondering for awhile if the reason we get fatter as we get older is due to just a lowering of aerobic capacity instead of lowered metabolism that is the supposed cause.When I was young I vividly remember that I lived a life of heavy(painful)breathing.I remember running/biking so much that I would literally feel like dying and I also remember when I grew out of my bicycle stage(16)I got fat within a year.
That said I do not get results from doing the 1 hour cardio sessions I see everyone doing.I get results from doing something that makes me look silly to most of them in fact.I get on a stationary bike and after 2 minutes I ramp up the level and power out till I feel that painful burning in my lungs.Thats it,usually ending my cardio session in 4 minutes.Weightloss has been ramped up from this and just a general feeling of well being.Clarence Bass was the one who opened my eyes yrs back to the Tabitha principle and VO2 max conditioning.He was doing a much more severe HIT cardio session and only could do this once a week due to strain on nervous system.I am getting results with my one set of heavy weights per exercise and one under 5 minutes cardio session!!! I love it and feel so un-overtrained.
Wolf,
To whom are you referring when you say, "we"? Americans get fatter as they get older because they are unhealthy. Non-industrialized peoples lose muscle mass with age, but they gain minimal body fat.
I just asked my husband "How do you think I could get access to an exercise bike for 5 minutes a week?"
Good thing he's already used to the weirdness.
I have been puzzling over that one for a while LOL.
Matt wrote:
"Seriously, you can get results from doing a simple round of morning exercises that entails some squats or lunges in your living room (for speed), a couple of abs/core movements, and some pushups on your knees that takes, at most, 10 minutes and isn't so hard to give you an asthma attack."
So, is it OK to do like 10-20 minutes of exercise every day? Even on resting and overfeeding days?
I've been avoiding it cause I figured it might be too much for my metabolism. But I LOVE to do some asanas in the morning, it makes my day so great! Is that OK for metabolism?
Regarding the asthma attacks, Buteyko writes that a lot of that has got to do with nose, vs mouth breathing. If you're able to do exercise while breathing in and out strictly through your nose, an asthma attack may be prevented. Of course it's also got a lot to do with a person's general CP (control pause, ie the length of time a person can hold one's breath with no effort what so ever after an out breath. This number should ideally be between 40-60 seconds, but most people only have about 25. Asthmatics are mostly below 15 seconds). My CP was around 8 seconds when I discovered it. Today it's around 20 thanks to Buteyko breathing exercises.
Stephanie C, I can say that for me personally RRARF has been the most powerful program I've ever tried. I have not seen minor changes but MAJOR positive changes. That's been my experience with it. And believe me, I've tried a LOT of different treatments…..list of what I've tried that hasn't worked is here:
http://healingendo.blogspot.com/2008/10/endometriosis-treatments-i-have-tried.html
Matt, why do you think all models are unhealthy? Is there a study showing this to be the case or is it just cause they obviously are underweight?
I was a model when I was 17 years old and I was super skinny but I ate like a horse, my metabolism must have been enormous. I know I was healthier then than I am now, but perhaps not in great shape. But being skinny probably wasn't my main issue back then, but perhaps it was, I don't know.
Well gee I guess that is why ballet dancers have such great and enviable bodies.
Thanks for the great pull up advice people. Missed the MDA video as I don't look at that big-stupid-ass-salad website any more, just makes me angry.
Matt
"Standard slow, steady-rep weight training with single planes of motion is bad for the metabolism too without complementary exercises."
Why do you say this? I agree that this is a limited approach and can be improved upon, but it is not bad for the metabolism.
Do you really believe that someone is going to get much out of exercising for 8 minutes a few times a week? You definitely won't gain much muscle. I know some "gurus" have marketed this, but I think it is just marketing to appeal to the lazy americans that don't like to exercise. Tabata is legit, but there is no reason to be limited by one protocol.
Stepahnie,
For someone with exercise induced asthma, I think short high intensity exercise would be the worst way to go. Probably better off doing some type of yoga and pranayama/buteyko breathing exercises. Most women find yoga more enjoyable, so it is much more likely to be maintained over time which is essential. Of course you should get the approval of a medical professional before doing anything.
re pullups video
The additional info was using a bench and supporting yourself with your legs just as much as you need to do the pullups, then once you got that use only one leg for support, then do the negatives, then the real deal.
John,your right and I would agree there are many reasons for the weight gain.Being in great shape is just one piece of the puzzle for me though.This might not be for everyone because I also have a "feeling" that some people decline rapidly by being sedentary.
I work for Fedex in Times Square area Manhattan.Its a terrible job in regards to constantly moving.Non stop from exact minute I get there to when I leave 8 hours later.I was always told I would lose weight doing this and never did.I notice this change in body composition every time I do these "sprints".I also was doing another type with similar results.Running up a staircase till I was in pain twice a week.
Its probably better to do the Tabitha protocol but I burn out easily and this works for me. :D
JT-
I say this because Abel says this, and I expect he is absolutely right when it comes to the long-term effects of guys who lift weights only but do NO type of cross training/sports…
?Furthermore, the bodybuilding paradigm myth of program design also delineates certain amount of rest between training protocols based on muscles used. Simply put, what I have noticed is that over time following the bodybuilding training model does not enhance metabolism but somehow slows it down. While muscle burns more calories at rest, these type of workouts do less to enhance the training affect on metabolism than do more movements based protocols.
That's what I'm talking about – movements-based exercises, which I know you are VERY familiar with.
I do not think that people will get "huge" from doing short-duration exercise like this. I do think that people can get very positive health improvements and fat loss, which is more of my concern – as I am quite certain that building a lot of bulk is not beneficial from a health standpoint for anyone, but is purely a vanity pursuit (nothing wrong with that, but that is not my focus).
I'm also not saying that people should exercise 8 minutes a day and then sit around the rest of the time. The ultimate exercise program would be to keep moving and spend a lot of time on your feet doing a variety of movements (kind of like what you would get farming or gathering), with no oxygen deficit or strain whatsoever. This is obviously not practical for many people, but a short workout certainly is.
Katie-
Not much, but very interesting results from it. Nice find!
Lisa-
I wouldn't fear exercise. While I think the metabolism can be enhanced by taking a break from it, I'm NOT an advocate of exercise avoidance either. I think some short morning exercises would be great, they can be 7 days per week if that's what you desire, and can be done multiple times throughout the day.
Wolf-
Beautiful input. That's exactly what I will be discussing in the follow-up posts. I don't think it's necessarily a drop in fitness that causes middle-aged weight gain, but a combination of things that leads to excess cortisol production and synthesis intracellularly.
Anonymous ballet dancers…
Yes. The greatest overall men's and women's bodies are developed doing sports and athletic movements – not steady-state running with a repetitive motion, cycling – which makes the body become fragile and unbalanced, and so on.
Ballerinas are a different story – starving themselves unmercifully to be overly skinny – particularly on top.
But girls on Dancing with the Stars (hey Edyta, ya left your toothbrush over at my house!) or just about any professional women's tennis player? Now that's impressive.
Endurance exercise does have one benefit that I didn't account for.
If you are a male and you are suffering from the burden of having to lug around gigantic balls, endurance exercise might help to lighten your load…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11254889
Found this in Danny Roddy's Hair Loss eBook at…
http://www.carnivorehealth.com/ebook
Maybe its because I am a dancer, but I have to disagree with you on ballet. Anorexic dancers- they do exist, but there are a multitude of dancers (like me) who eat normal diets and have a well toned and developed body. You see, if ballet is taught properly, EVERY single muscle is lenghthened and stretched and used in a way that it cannot cause stress to the body. If done properly it is supposedly impossible to get an injury doing ballet. It combines slow movement to fast movement, all the while utilizing the muscles and placing them in proper positions at all times. It isn't highly cardiovascular even though a dancer is always moving. And check out professional male dancers- they have bodies like gods. Strength, flexibility, and insanely coordinated. Ballet explains how the body was meant to move. Just my bias of course.
"And check out professional male dancers- they have bodies like gods. Strength, flexibility, and insanely coordinated. Ballet explains how the body was meant to move. Just my bias of course." I was at the Monte Carlo Ballet recently and have to agree with you about the male dancers **** swoon
Thanks for your input Anonymous ballerina.
The thinnest girl I ever dated was great at ballet and applied at schools all over New York but was turned down because she was not lean enough.
Another ballet girl I know is a total psycho with all kinds of mental neurosis, not to mention underdeveloped from extensive training and dieting (common amongst female gymnasts too of course).
And the final ballet girl I know just had her thyroid removed from both Hashimoto's (to be expected from overtraining and being uber lean) and thyroid cancer – age 25.
Men, I imagine, fare much better and do have more Godlike bodies and great muscularity. But they are encouraged to have such physiques unlike the females (generally). But I've never seen a ballerina with a body that compares to Edyta or Kournikova or a sprinter.
Yea Matt, don't forget The Bear did ballet too!
Matt…excellent point on exercising and then laying around not being good for you. I read something recently about how there were some studies that exercise didn't increase longevity (could be wrong on the purpose…going from memory). But the conclusion was that these folks were going out and exercising like mad, then were so exhausted when they were done that they spent the rest of the day lying around watching TV. One thing that I read about the longevity of the Okinawans was that they sit on the floor and these little old ladies were literally getting up from the ground several hundred times a day. That activity throughout the ENTIRE day was supposedly a key factor in their health.
Sheesh, I guess if I met those people, I too would correlate a ballet dancer to an extremely unhealthy person. Thyroid issues at 25is beyond tradgic. But as a dancer, I see everything, and I can assure you that you are only seeing half the story. Watch Drew Jacoby move (my favorite dancer); her physique is incredible and inspiring- no sprinter or Edyta could challenge her body, trust me. And according to her, she eats ALOT of food to keep healthy and in shape. Ballet applies a good mix of both strength and endurance to every muscle of the body. Its so easy to have a slender, sleek, and lithe physique with a continual regime of movement that is both anerobic and aerobic. Dancers do not have to work for their naturally slender body. If only they realized this and would actually eat…
Hi Matt
Is it ok to eat wholegrain oats and buckwheat pasta on a daily basis?
I think from your earlier comment you are saying it is, but just want to confirm.
Thanks heaps.
I think ballet is good and healthy as a hobby. Not at a competetive / pro level, but which sport is? All the pro athletes are constantly nursing their injuries. E.g. pro soccer players would fall apart without their doctors.
Ah yeah, about the washing the rice thing. I'd be interested in knowing more about the why, too. I've read that they use all kinds of unhealthy stuff to preserve the rice and that's why you should wash it. Hope they don't use it on my organic rice, but who knows. Then, I've also read that they use glucose to polish the rice, and I'd want to wash that off. Any different insights into this?
Alot of rice found in america is now polished with water and this requires no real washing. The only reason you may want to rinse is to reduce the "free starches" that would bind the grains together and create a stickier rice as opposed to a fluffier rice
Yeah, anonymous ballet dancer, I have anecdotal story to back you up. A good friend has a daughter who has been a professional ballerina for more than a decade. She is very healthy and has a positive relationship with food. From the gatherings I've attended with her, I can assure you she ties on the feed bag. She tours in Europe half the year and definitely enjoys the local fare. She is naturally "gamine" in her figure (so is her mom). She would probably be a bit curvier if she allowed her BF to go up, but not much. Ballet dancers do endless hours of stretching so their muscles get long and not bulky. They are ripped I assure you.
I think any sport or activity that demands a certain body type is going to be rife with abuse. Those people who have that body type through genetics are fortunate and shouldn't be automatically assumed to be neurotic and unhealthy. Having said that, keeping very low body fat levels through puberty for females can be very damaging and probably accounts for many of the horrors Matt has seen. If I had a naturally gamine daughter who was bursting with grace and just dying to spend 3 hours a day with her leg on a bar, I'd still be worried about it though.
I suppose this explains why my father and father-in-law, both long distance runners up through their forties, turned into big fat guys once their knees blew out. There is a kind of big, ex-athlete belly you see in some men.
So I guess I'll scale back my own running ambitions. Which is too bad, because NOTHING feels so awesome as waking up the day after an excellent run! But I know it's rough on the old body.
Here's a philosophical question for you, Matt: do you think there's an ideal way for a particular person to live — to eat and exercise? Or do you think there are dozens of ways that are equally good, and that all of them have pros and cons?
Because I feel like in my quest to find the "best" way for me to live, I'm constantly going in circles, always coming back to my starting point of doing nothing special: eating fairly healthily, but not obsessing about it, and exercising when I feel like it. But this doesn't feel good enough. I wish there was a plan I could follow that would *work*, you know? But maybe I can't find it because it doesn't exist. I don't know.
"o I guess I'll scale back my own running ambitions. Which is too bad, because NOTHING feels so awesome as waking up the day after an excellent run! But I know it's rough on the old body."
I hear ya. Distance running has always been my preferred form of exercise, the only one I can stick with with any regularity. I really loved the long runs. I seemed to hit my stride around the 6 mile mark. I've been trying to still do running but to do hills, intervals, sprints and run/walking for shorter periods. This way I still get out in the woods on the trails. It's hard though, because as Matt says, sprinting is probably the most dangerous kind of running for injuries. The main thing is to make sure you are really warmed up and stretched out before you do it. I bike to the woods (about 7 minutes each way), do a run/walk warm up and then do some hill sprints before cooling down and heading home. Total time about 45 minutes. Also, it's important to keep your workouts down to a short time limit. That way I'm not burning through my stored glycogen and eating into muscle mass. Another workout that incorporates running: I walk or jog to my local playground, do some "Body weight exercises" (i.e. use playground equipment like a kid does), warm up running a lap or two around the ball field and then take my shoes off and sprint on the grass. If you live near a beach you can sprint on the beach and that's an even better work out because the sand give you all kinds of perturbation.
Even though it's not "exercise" per se, gardening is a wonderful way to get that long, slow movement of large muscle groups that Matt is talking about. Every person I know that gardens is in better shape for it, especially as they age. And in the winter I shovel the crap outta some snow.
Jennythenipper- Ballet, thankfully, has become much more accepting of different body types than you may be aware of- from short and stocky to tall and curvy, as long as someone has the passion to dance, nothing will stop them. Ballet is an art. It connects the body's movement to music and expression. Its not about athletic dexterities and such; please please don't degrade ballet to a place for only "skinny people". Its not true. And dancers don't have their leg on the bar for three hours- they actually dance from one end of the floor to the other most of the time. .
Maggieo- I do think there is some riddle to how you are supposed to live your life.
One reflection I have about modern life is how sedentary and purposeless it has become. Looking back into the past (such as mid-19th century in America, when gyms, weight watchers, fast-food restaurants, vegetable oils, process foods, etc did no exist. But also absent were computers, cell phones, TV, microwaves, cars, and office jobs. Incorporating excercise into their life was essential to survival. They had to churn the butter, weed the gardens, plow the fields, fix the house, cook the dinner, chop the wood, butcher the chicken…) Movement throughout the day was a natural part of living, and essentially ensured survival. In the modern world, we no longer have the need to grow our own gardens, plow our own fields, or even cook our own meals. Our lives are now centered on getting an education and eventually getting a career. And then we get an office job where we sit for 8 plus hours a day staring at a glowing screen. The modern life is sooo despairingly sedentary. We try to compensate by incorporating 30 min intervals of running on the treadmill or something, but I think its just ridiculous. Since survival has been degraded to having a convience store, modern life lacks purpose. Now, there are people (like us) trying to figure out how the hell we are supposed to live our life using mathematics and science. "Eat this amount of food, this type of food, and excercise this amount of time and you will live to be hundred years old?" Haha if only there was such a "fountain of youth". We need to live with purpose, not comfort. Ballet is a pretty cool thing for me right now, but later on maybe I'll become Amish. Add some extra purpose into my life…
Mishkam-
Yes.
Riles-
Thanks for answering the rice question.
Hans-
Great point about all levels of extreme athletic competition being nothing but trouble from a health standpoint. Recreational athletics – not so much.
Maggieo-
Don't let me deter you. If you like it, do it. No one is trying to stop you. And not following something you have an innate inspiration to do is probably the most unhealthy thing a person could do. It's my dream and ambition to read and research and spend a bunch of time communicating it to people on the interent. I don't do this for health. It actually takes quite a toll, but I work on ways to offset that.
But there are benefits too. If I had to live on an Amish farm and churn butter all day I'd shoot myself. That's not what I want to do with my life, and not doing what you wish you could with your life is a complete waste of our earth's oxygen supply and does more physical damage than any doughnut could ever do.
To answer your question about the ideal way – hell no there is no one way for anyone, we are constantly changing with ever-changing needs that we are constantly just trying to keep up with and figure out.
And… All foods, all forms of exercise, all actions, all events – they all have pros and cons. Same for all diets as a whole. Anyone who believes otherwise is naive or hasn't explored the truth of that thoroughly enough.
Anonymous-
Yes, just doing things physically throughout the day is the ultimate for overall health and longevity. I don't think there's much debate there. But there are other considerations to have interesting conversations about, one of which is improving physical appearance (muscle to fat ratio, symmetry) or achieving specific hormonal alterations (like reducing cortisol).
As soon as i saw the headline i couldn't wait to get to start reading the comments.
aerobics
If you want an ‘exercise’ that reduces cortisol, can stretch and lengthen muscles, improve your breathing, and deeply nurture yourself – try restorative yoga, especially if you’re in a healing phase of metabolism restoration.
I have to tell you that your last bookdid it for me. Eat For Heat was it. Last year I read Diet Recovery and overdid it, gaining an uncomfortable 20 pounds. Just last month I read Eat For Heat and though “this makes sense”. I applied the principles right away, while on vacation, none the less, and came home THINNER. (My husband gained 5 pounds). The things that did it for me were watching how much water I drank, eating a timely breakfast, eating small snacks to keep my body temp warm. I didn’t go crazy at the buffet, and I didn’t deny myself, either.
I went from being a I’m really size 16 fitting in these size 14 pants to a legitimate size 12 in less than a month. This says a lot because I’ve been trying without success to lose since last year. I’m 40 and I thought my metabolism was shot. A couple tweaks and I’m back in the game again.
I like walking, but I’m not obsessing about exercise, either. All this happens to close out my running season when no matter what I did I could not for the life of me lose a single pound without gaining it back in a couple weeks. Needless to say, I’m done running.
Once a week I will mountainbiking with my father for maybe 2,5 hours.. before, during and afterwards I always eat and make sure I eat all the calories back I just burned up.. will my metabolism still suffer by performing this once a week trip?