<p>So if my glutes weren’t sore enough, I might as well add to it, right? ;)</p>
<p>3x6
–TRX Lunges (each leg)
–Cable Chops (each side)
–Pallof Presses (each side)
–Vertical Pallof Presses (each side)
–Dumbbell Bench Press (40#)</p>
<p>And I probably walked close to a mile today… was in downtown St. Louis and we walked around the Arch at our lunch break. I’ll get more exercise tomorrow at the convention center…</p>
<p>You can tell how significant (and controversial) a new diet study is by the prominence of the “experts” trotted out to write the editorial critiques. When the Journal of American Medicine trots out he granddaddy of American US nutrtiion, George Bray, to write the “hummina hummina’s” in response to a new study, you know it’s a big deal. And, that’s the case in the new issue of JAMA, with the publication of a major NIH funded study and George Bray’s editorial.</p>
<p>The study was an incredibly expensive 4-year endeavor by Harvard Medical School professor David Ludwig and conducted in part at the Boston Children’s Hospital, in part at Brigham & Womens Hospital in Boston, and in part at Baylor in Texas, funded entirely by NIH. This is gold-plated research. They paid 21 overweight men and women $2500 each to:</p>
<p>a) lose an average of 12% of their body weight on a carefully controlled diet (45% carb, 30% fat, 25% protein)</p>
<p>b) Then spend a month each on three different maintenance diets prepared for them by the study with fixed calories, but different compostions: one month on a low-fat diet (60% carb, 20% fat, 20% protein), one month on a very low carb Atkins diet (10% carb, 60% fat, 30% protein), and one in-between low-gycemic index moderate carb diet (40% carb, 40% fat, 20% protein). The kicker is that at the start of study and again at the end of each of the month-long maintenance diets, each participant was hospitalized for an extensive battery of metabolic tests, including comprehensive measurement of the daily resting energy expenditure (zero exercise) and their total energy expenditure (days where they were allowed to exercise). Weight maintenance was the same on all three diets (as you would expect from the same people eating the same calories.</p>
<p>**Everything else was different! ** Most significantly, the energy expenditure on the maintenance diets (both resting and total) was highest on the low carb diet, lowest on the low fat diet, and in between on the in-between diet). With such large weight loss, all of the subjects burned fewer calories at their lighter weights, but the drop off was less pronounced when they were eating the low carb maintenance diet. Something metabolically was going on to keep the energy expenditure higher, just from eating low carb.</p>
<p>They also measured insulin sensitivity (the opposite of insulin resistance). At the end of the month of low carb eating, the subjects had the highest sensitivity to insulin. They had the lowest sensitivity at the end of the low-fat month. And, again, in between for the in-between diet.</p>
<p>These are pretty significant findings in support of the notion that a calorie is not just a calorie and that there are hormonal/metabolic complexities to this stuff. Obviously, burning an extra 300 calories a day is an advantage for maintaining weight loss.</p>
<p>Here’s the layman’s article on the study in USA Today, with quotes from a Who’s Who list of nutritional luminaries:</p>
<p>[Low-carb</a> diet burns the most calories in small study ? USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-06-27/calories-low-carb-weight-loss/55843134/1]Low-carb”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-06-27/calories-low-carb-weight-loss/55843134/1)</p>
<p>Here’s the PDF of the full-study in JAMA (it’s a tough slog to get through it…)</p>
<p><a href=“http://jama.jamanetwork.com/data/Journals/JAMA/24277/jpc120005_2627_2634.pdf[/url]”>http://jama.jamanetwork.com/data/Journals/JAMA/24277/jpc120005_2627_2634.pdf</a></p>
<p>And, here’s George Bray’s editorial trying to poke some holes in what he describes as a “well-designed” study. As perhaps the world’s most prominent proponent of “calories in/calories out”, Bray had to have indigestion on this one:</p>
<p><a href=“http://jama.jamanetwork.com/data/Journals/JAMA/24277/jpc120005_2627_2634.pdf[/url]”>http://jama.jamanetwork.com/data/Journals/JAMA/24277/jpc120005_2627_2634.pdf</a></p>
Here’s Mark Bittman’s article on the study in the New York Times:
[Which</a> Diet Works? - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/which-diet-works/]Which”>Which Diet Works? - The New York Times)
He goes on to present Ludwig’s suggestion that the low glycemic moderate carb diet might be the the best long term bet – a fairly common-sense suggestion since even Atkins doesn’t recommend that most people can or should stay at induction-phase levels of carb restriction for the long haul.
<p>Research > Journalism, almost always.</p>
<p>Thanks for the summary on the articles.</p>
<p>Stretching, abs and home weights this morning. I have a few hours of work ahead of me and will do something else later on.</p>
<p>I figured this would be a major story.</p>
<p>The Boston Globe</p>
<p>[Right</a> diet, not just reduced calories, could help maintain weight loss, study finds - Daily Dose: A Boston Globe blog with health news, advice, and information.](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/06/26/right-diet-not-just-reduced-calories-could-help-maintain-weight-loss-study-finds/mls7rx4jXD5yjf9cyttgIL/story.html]Right”>http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/06/26/right-diet-not-just-reduced-calories-could-help-maintain-weight-loss-study-finds/mls7rx4jXD5yjf9cyttgIL/story.html)</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal</p>
<p>[Not</a> All Calories Equal, Study Comparing 3 Diets Shows - WSJ.com](<a href=“Not All Calories Equal, Study Comparing 3 Diets Shows - WSJ”>Not All Calories Equal, Study Comparing 3 Diets Shows - WSJ)</p>
<p>ABC News article</p>
<p>[Is</a> a Calorie Always a Calorie? Harvard Study Compares Three Popular Weight-Loss Diets - ABC News](<a href=“For Calories, It's All About Quality Over Quantity, Harvard Study Says - ABC News”>For Calories, It's All About Quality Over Quantity, Harvard Study Says - ABC News)</p>
<p>Doing track intervals every Tuesday now. Start with a 15 min stretch routine and a mile warmup. Today did 4-200s at 33-36 and 4-400s at 77-80. Always end with mile warmdown.I weigh myself before and after and today I dropped over 4 lbs. I always drop more weight on intervals than I do on tempo runs, cycling , rowing or swimming. Swimming seems to have the least affect on weight.</p>
<p>New Rules of Lifting for Life for me today. Any day I don’t trip and break my neck doing carioca across the parking lot is a good day! :)</p>
<p>I cranked up the t-pushups to two sets of 6 per arm – and collapsed in a heap at the end of both sets. Bunsen Burner has set a high mark to shoot for…</p>
<p>ValSlide reverse lunges were tough as always. I hate those things which probably means they are good for me.</p>
<p>Trap bar romanian deadlifts were challenging as usual. I’ve got to really focus to do 15 good reps, and I don’t want to be doing bad dead lift reps.</p>
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</p>
<p>Sprint intervals on the track. That is hard core! You definitely win today’s “you are an animal” award! :)</p>
<p>Good thing you posted those articles. I was mighty tempted to grab a chocolate frosted while getting a large coffee.</p>
<p>BTW, getting donuts at Dunkin is a bad idea at night. They drop them off at 5:00 AM and they sit in the display until 5:00 AM the next morning. Or maybe 4:00 AM. They don’t have a lot of (actually, any) low-carb options that don’t require cooking and the guy there by himself tonight didn’t look like he was terribly interested in cooking.</p>
<p>One of the (many) things that contributed to my packing on 90 pounds over the years was grabbing a Dunkin Donuts coffee roll. I’ve just had to eliminate the donut food group from my diet… :)</p>
<p>I generally try to get DD coffee from the drive thru window so I don’t have to stare at the wall of carbs. I think the bagels are even worse for you, and they carry the notion of being somewhat “healthy”.</p>
<p>Ironically, I’m am clearly not insulin resistant at this point in time (not with HDL= 93 and Triglycerides = 31), so I could probably have the occassional donut or coffee roll and not do permanent damage. But, I know where taking that turn and driving down that road leads. I just think of it as poison.</p>
<p>It’s not going to be a good exercise week. Zero sleep last night and very busy for the rest of the week and I have several errands to take care of.</p>
<p>I seldom eat donuts - they are a crime of opportunity - someone brings them into the office or I’m at a Dunkin Donuts (which doesn’t happen very often).</p>
<p>Increased my weight level for bicep curls and tricep kickbacks yesterday and am not particularly sore today. Yay! Turning into a jogging junkie. It’s time for a 2 day off (3 jogging workouts per week), and I’m feeling antsy.</p>
<p>BC, after your half marathon prep workout the other day you deserve a break.</p>
<p>Trying to do my exercises this morning…I swear some days I’m more ADD than others. Exercises are boring, and there is always something else on my mind. We are going out of town for a few days, and I thought it was important to stop and do the holds on the paper & mail while I was thinking of it. And put something in the suitcase before I forgot it. And so on and so forth. Excuses, excuses.</p>
<p>One thing that helps is good music. Doing my dumbbell exercises to Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta right now. :)</p>
Warm Up
400m run
2 rounds
15 seal push ups
lunges
15 air squats
15 pass throughs
30 clean and jerks for time (55 lb. barbell, too light, but 30 sounded like a high number and I wanted to make sure my form was right)
3 rounds
400 m sprint
15 burpees
HR skyrocketed on the burpees for some reason and I never could get it to come down, so the sprints were more of a run and my heart was in my throat the whole time. Ugh. Couple that with some kind of strong fast food smell and the queasiness was complete.
<p>Burpees send my heart rate through the roof. They require moving a lot of weight (bodyweight) over a long distance (from the floor to a jump). Fifteen is a lot. I think I could maybe do ten. I don’t know. I only do six at a time in my burpee intervals. That takes me 20 to 30 seconds, so I’d be looking at over a minute for 15. That’s a pretty long work bout for something that demanding. That’s pretty much guaranteed to slam you into pure anaerobic territory (not fun). I can’t even imagine alternating burpees with 400 meter sprints. It seems like the goal of a workout like that would be to make you hurl.</p>
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</p>
<p>Just watched a video to see what these were. Yikes!</p>
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</p>
<p>Afraid to ask. Are those the things with your arms stretched out in front that look nearly impossible?</p>
<p>Nike just put out a free GPS app - I just dumped MapMyRun and installed the Nike app. I’ll probably have to set up an account there too.</p>
<p>Still shopping treadmills if anyone has advice. DD runs on it. She will be at college but very close and we expect around to use it a fair amount. DS seems to visit a couple weeks a year. He also runs and at a steep incline. DH walks fairly briskly – 5 mph, at about a 5 incline. I use every now and then and run/walk. Our weights range from 120 lbs to 190 lbs. DD, DS and DH are tall. I’m average height.</p>
<p>At this point, I know we want at least a 3.6 hp motor that can sustain top speed at least an hour. </p>
<p>It’s a jungle out there navigating the world of fitness equipment.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, I’ve been very happy with my Precor machine. It is not the fanciest one of their line, but a step above the basic treadmills. It has gym-quality wide belt and a minimum amount of bells and whistles. I will post the model number later, when I have a chance to look it up. What I like the most about it is that it is really sturdy and doesn’t wobble or shake when I run at relatively high (for me) speeds. </p>
<p>Ran 4 miles last night plus some weight work. Feels good. :)</p>
<p>I wish posting pictures here was a little easier! I wanted to show BCEagle the remarkable event that just happened here! I passed on a Krispy Kreme donut that was in the break room in our other building. Granted, they had been sitting since this morning and I had eaten a big lunch AND a cookie, but still…rare event!</p>