A calorie is a calorie is a calorie right?

Not really.

Now that I’m working on the treadmill again, I’m paying more attention to not only what I eat, but when I eat it.

Some may argue that a 500-calorie meal of steak and veggies is the same as a 500-calorie meal of white rice and fish, but that’s not true, especially when you’re working out.

It’s important to consider where those calories are coming from: fats, protein, carbs and even alcohol should be considered in your caloric makeup.  This is because the body has preferences on what it uses for fuel during certain activities.

If I’m going to do low-intensity, high endurance cardio with the goal of losing body fat, I’m going to avoid eating carbs before hand.  The body prefers to use carbs for fuel.  Without it, the body switches to breaking down body fat (this is the basic concept of the low-carb Atkins diet).  However, if I was running a marathon or something, I would load up on the carbs to make sure I have enough fuel to last for such a long regime.

You have to be careful with the above scenario because the body can also start breaking down muscle for energy and that’s not something you want.  You’ll notice how many of the lead runners in marathons are slender with both little body fat and smaller muscles.

Before weight training or HIIT, I make sure I have some carbs in me. It’s a quicker and better source of fuel for the intense, powerful movements required by lifting weights or high-intensity cardio.  You definitely do not want to get too weak and not be able to complete your reps in good form.  Your main goal here is to build muscle and you need the fuel from carbs to be able to do that.

Alcohol is another thing to look at in terms of fuel because once alcohol is in your system, it is the #1 source of fuel preferred by your body. What this means is that your body will focus on using up the alcohol for energy before it goes to the carbs and stored body fat.  If it never gets a chance to switch to the carbs, the carbs will be converted to fat and stored.

My general guideline is to avoid combining fat and carbs. I still eat the foods I love, like bacon and rice, just not necessarily together. I let my activity dictate what I eat and when.  For example, today I haven’t been very active yet so I don’t need the quick fuel from carbs. I haven’t had much carbs but have eaten sausages, veggies, bacon, eggs, salsa, milk, and cheese.  I’m putting more fat and protein into my body without putting in carbs.  So without carbs and sugars for energy, my body is using the stored fat (and the newly introduced fat that’s being stored) to keep me going.

Later on today, I will be doing my callanetics routine and I will probably eat some rice and fruit so I can ensure I complete my reps in good form without feeling week.

I am definitely starting to see results and my body fat is decreasing - finally!

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I just finished watching a BBC Horizon documentary called “Why Are Thin People Not Fat?”  It was a lot more interesting than I had expected and changed some of my beliefs about obesity and body weight.

The documentary covers an experiment where they take 10 slim people and have them eat double their normal calories for 4 weeks.  The aim was to track how people put on weight and how much of that weight was body fat.  As expected, some people gained more weight than others. For some, a higher percentage of that extra weight consisted of body fat. Other people hardly put on any noticeable weight.  One guy increased his weight by about 8% but it was mainly muscle!  Seems that he has a gene where excess calories are used to build muscle mass instead of being stored as fat. How lucky is that guy!?  Other things I learned:

• There is a virus, first discovered in chicken, that grows itself in fat tissue and at the same times grows more fat cells.  It has been shown that obese people are three times more likely to be carriers of this virus.
• Once a fat cell reaches a certain size, and your fat cells can’t grow any bigger, your body will make more fat cells. Once you have a fat cell, it is almost impossible to lose it. You can only decrease the size of it.  Conclusion: If you get really fat, your body will reach a  point where it makes more fat cells, and even when you get thinner, you’ll retain that increased number of fat cells.
• There may be a genetic component to what is your natural weight. Your body could be programmed to be at a weight that is overweight and obese, even if you lose the weight, your body will feel uneasy and hungry as it strives to get back to what it considers its natural weight.
• An experiment with children showed that from an early age, some of us naturally stop eating when we’re full. Others do not.  There may be a mechanism beyond our control that dictates how food affects us.

I highly recommend you watch the video yourself on YouTube.  It’s broken down into 7 parts but you can watch it all at once by clicking Play All Videos.

Why Are Thin People Not Fat? [YouTube Playlist]

Porkchops fresh off my so-called outdoor grill.

Now that I am working out a lot, I am eating more food while trying to be a bit more conscious as to what I’m putting in my body.  I’ll write a proper blog entry on that later, but here’s a quick rundown of the staples of my diet:

• non-fat yogurt with fruit on the bottom
• low-carb yogurt with fruit
• low-fat or non-fat hormones-free milk
• bacon
• Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine frozen dinners (for snacks)
• a variety of regular teas and herbal teas
• eggs
• white rice
• whole wheat or multigrain pasta
• honey
• coffee
• meat
  I buy whatever meats are on sale that week at Ralphs.  This saves me money and keeps my diet interesting.  Sometimes it’s pork spareribs, sometimes it’s Argentine scallops or top sirloin steaks or chicken drumsticks. I’m not very picky when it comes to meat. I love meat and I don’t really discriminate!  Not a big fan of offal, lamb or turkey though.

I am trying to add more vegetables into my diet. I like vegetables, I really do, they’re just a bit more work to prepare than a steak.  I love eating and cooking meat because I usually just prefer my meats deep-fried. Though I don’t deep-fry my steaks, I love browning ground beef til crispy and eating with a bowl of jasmine rice and a splash of fish and chili sauce. Easy and satisfying!

Today however, I had some pork chops that I decided to grill instead of fry.  I marinaded them for a few hours in this Pork Chop Marinade recipe from About.com. I had all the ingredients on hand and it was very easy to throw together.  Then I fired up my “grill” which is actually an oversized and stylized George Foreman grill that has been designed for both indoor and outdoor use.  I could use it inside, but I worry about the smoke setting off the alarms so I use it on my little balcony instead. It’s a small space but it works wonderfully!

My rinky-dink grilling setup

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Have you seen Kelly Osborne lately? She’s lost 42 lbs and looks great.  The best part? She did it all through diet and exercise.

She can afford to turn to liposuction or hiring an intense personal trainer, but she did it gradually in a way that allowed her to stick with it and eventually grow to love it and make it a part of her life.

I completely agree with what she had to say about workout out:

“After DWTS ended I followed the Bar Method and now I do that three times a week at least. Not every day. I don’t have that kind of dedication. Working out sucks. You sweat and you stick, but then you’re done — and then you see that just taking an hour three times a week can change you so much. It becomes addictive.”

It is addictive! Now that I’m doing the most intense workouts of my life, I do find myself cursing the heavens before each routine.  But once it’s done, you feel great, like you’ve conquered the world. You did it! You got through it and you almost didn’t even start.  That feeling coupled with the fact that it doesn’t take that much time to see results is something that will keep you going and going.

You can see pics and read more about Kelly’s transformation on the FitSugar website.

Note: The Bar Method Kelly mentions is very similar to and has the same concepts as the Callanetics that I am doing.

A large slice of Pizza Hut pan pizza with pepperoni, sausage, jalapeno and pineapple

I ordered a large pan pizza from Pizza Hut tonight. They currently have a deal where you can get “Any Pizza, Any Size, Any Toppings” for just $10.  So, being the greedy piggies that we are, I ordered a large and piled on the toppings. Tim’s half was covered in mushrooms, diced tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and jalapenos.  I opted for pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, jalapenos and pineapple.

I know I’ve been talking a lot lately about working out and eating healthier. So why on earth did I order a pizza with slices that are about 430 calories each?  It’s because I know myself well enough to say confidently that if I put myself on a “diet” where I ate healthy all the time, I would never stick to it.  Being able to still eat what I want while making healthy choices most of the time is key for me.  With the exception of the 2 slices of pizza tonight, I made otherwise healthy eating choices today.

Additionally, today was a cardio day. On days where I work out intensely, I eat more carbs because I know my body needs the extra fuel. My body will use the energy created from those carbs and it’s not going to get stored as fat.  In the time it took the pizza to be delivered, I did the intense BodyRock.TV 20-minute HIIT cardio routine and a few targeted leg and butt exercises (15 reps, 3 sets of each).  Not only does the HIIT routine get your heart pounding and your sweat dripping, but it really works out your legs, and with the push-ups in round 2, your chest and arms get in on the action.  Tonight was my third time doing the full routine and it’s not getting any easier.  There’s such a great sense of accomplishment after I’m done.  I always begin with “I can’t believe I’m going to do this” and end with “Hell yeah! I just did that!”

After all my workouts, be it the HIIT, bench, callanetics or dance cardio, I make sure to have a glass of protein and simple sugar.  This is usually in the form of non-fat or low-fat chocolate milk or non-fat milk mixed with dextrose (a simple sugar also known as D-glucose or simply glucose).  I do this to quickly raise my blood sugar levels which in turn triggers the release of insulin.  Insulin is important for amino acid uptake and protein synthesis—processes that are essential for muscle growth, repair and recovery.  Furthermore, the insulin helps break down the newly introduce blood sugar to replenish the energy stores of my muscles and liver that may have been exhausted during my workout.  You can find a lot of post-workout shakes and drinks out there that have this same combination of simple carbs and protein, but I’ve read quite a few studies that have shown that chocolate milk is just as effective as the fancy stuff and much cheaper.

Further Reading

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) [Wikipedia]
My 20-Minute HIIT Cardio Routine [YouTube]

Chocolate Milk: The New Sports Drink? [CBS News, 2006]
Got Milk? Try Chocolate After Your Workout [Fitness Magazine Online]
Post-Workout Chocolate Milk [AskMen.com]

A few days ago, I came across an article titled “Get shredded, ripped, cut up, lean, losing body fat, cut carbs to lose weight, diet and muscle gain.” Yeah, it’s a mouthful though I’m sure that’s for SEO reasons.

I didn’t read it at the time because it’s rather long, but I took the time tonight to carefully read through the entire thing.  I’m really glad I did because it’s very informative and goes into detailed, and sometimes scientific explanations of why certain things work and others don’t.

The article mainly deals with diet and nutrition.  I already knew most of what was discussed after years of reading up on health and fitness topics.  This includes how fat is not the enemy, the role of carbs, glucose, and insulin when it comes to energy and body fat, and how important protein is to one’s diet.  Also mentioned is the importance of eating several meals a day and varying carbohydrate intake from day to day.

I follow most of these principles loosely. It’s just a natural way of how I eat in that I prefer fats and proteins over carbs.  I’m not big on sweets and some days I will consume a ton of white rice (simple carbs) and the next day hardly have any.  I know that if I really wanted to get super lean, I would have to be more stringent with my diet.  I doubt that’s going to happen because I love to eat and I’d rather be a bit soft than give up the foods I love.

If you’re interested in getting really lean, or are just curious at how the body handles food and fat, take the time to read through this article.  Yes, it’s long, but you’ll learn a lot!