Monday, June 22, 2009

Trying to lose fat.

First, let me address why I would like to lose some fat. First there's the obvious: I want to have abs of steel, I want people to see each individual ab muscle in broad daylight. But there is another reason why I would like to lose some fat: it slows me down. Using various methods, from the zone calculator to electrical impedance, my body fat is somewhere between 12-18%. I now weight 205, so that's 25-37 pounds of fat I'm carrying around. If I could lower that to, say, 8%, I would be losing 9-15 pounds (just guessing here, since I'm not sure much I would weigh with 8% bf). For anyone who's worked out with a weight vest, the difference of 10 pounds can make a difference.

So I happened upon this post at Byers gets diesel, and let me tell you this is a high quality blog, full of great info. Here are some points I picked up from her interview with Mathieu Lalonde, a man with quite a list of credentials in chemistry. These are just a few points taken from the interview, and applied to my current situation. I encourage anyone interested to read the entire article. Here are a couple of points I've taken away from the article.

Point #1:

The source of the calories is just as important, if not more, than the total number of calories itself.

In other words, follow a paleo diet because this will eliminate insulin-spiking foods. Although I already know this, it is yet another reminder for me to remove dairy from my diet. It will be hard, because I find it to be a convenient source of protein, such as my oatmeal breakfast or my fruit smoothie recipe. Other than dairy, I feel like I have a very clean zone diet, with my carbs coming from fruits and veggies.

Point #2:

Fat is healthy and should be your friend.

As Lalonde tells it:

...fat consumption triggers the release of N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine, which inhibits food intake, and foods that are high in fat also have a much lower insulin response when compared to foods high in carbohydrates. This is why Robb Wolf recommends cutting out carb blocks and replacing them with fat blocks for people who are always hungry on the Zone. Not only does subbing fat for carbs prevent hunger, but it also increases the caloric content of the diet.

Zone? Check. Always hungry? Check. Looks like I need to start consuming more fat. At first I was resistant to the idea of cutting carbs and increasing fat because I thought the zone was all I needed. However, it's starting to look like this kind of modification will help me out. The more I understand the reasoning behind this kind of modification the more I am mentally up for it.

Point #2:

Ideally, one would only want to consume enough complex carbohydrates to be able to perform optimally during exercise, with the remainder of the calories consisting of protein and fat.

So I need to figure out, probably through trial and error, how many carbs I need, and let everything go from there. According to the Zone calculator, I need somewhere between 21-23 blocks a day if I'm lifting heavy weights daily. ...That is a LOT more than the 16 blocks I was consuming for most of the winter/spring. I don't know what's triggered this sudden rush of hunger, but I like it. Speaking of feeding the hunger....

Point #3:

Not eating enough will make one sluggish and become more likely to over train (or under recover).

I would try to paraphrase as to explain why this is so, but Mr. Lalonde does such a great job of explaining I would only muddle it up. According to Lalonde:

The problem isn’t necessarily one of basal metabolism, which tends to slow down when a significant caloric deficit is created, but rather of energy stores. If food intake is insufficient for replenishment of muscle and liver glycogen, intense bouts of exercise such as CrossFit may become somewhat more challenging. That is because the amount of glycogen used by the body increases with the intensity of the exercise. The glycogen stores of someone on a low calorie diet may not be able to supply sufficient quantities of glucose to maintain a high level of intensity for the duration of the workout.

I've noticed the recent increase in hunger has been accompanied by an increase in a sense of fatigue. It seems that because I'm not eating enough to have sufficient stores of glycogen. So I need to eat more in order to have enough energy (glycogen) to survive through these workouts. But you still need to run a caloric deficit to cause the body to burn off fat right? Yes you do, but figuring out how much and by what method can be tricky.

Point #3:

For some people, the zone diet is all you need, for others a ketogenic-cyclic-low carbohydrate diet might work.

What is a ketogenic-cyclic-carbohydate diet? Well, ketosis is when you don't have enough glycogen for the task at hand, so your body turns to fat as an energy source. Burning fat for energy? Heck yeah why don’t we all do that?!? Not so fast. Because burning fat takes up more oxygen then burning glycogen, less oxygen reaches the muscles and inhibits performance. So while you are burning fat, that's because you have no other choice, and a drop in performance is almost guaranteed. The cycle part means you time your intake of complex carbohydrates based on when you need your glycogen stores replenished (This could relate to post workout meals, which is reference later). I think will be a last resort for me, as I feel that I have many other aspects of my diet with which I can improve upon. However, Lalonde makes one comment that applies directly to me.

A male CrossFitter on a Paleo diet with an already low body fat level between 10% and 15% can further decrease his body fat level with a ketogenic cyclic low carb diet, but performances will suffer to some extent.

Still, I feel like I can go a lot more Paleo and should consistently eat more per day before I try going ketogenic. Harold once ended up in a ketosis state and did not enjoy the drop in performance.

Point #4

If you have great insulin sensitivity, then a post workout (PWO) meal is a great way to get carbs to work for you and maximize performance and recovery.

Although it isn't crystal clear how to tell if you have insulin sensitivity, I get the idea if you've been paleo or zoning for a while you should be sensitive. Given that I never crave sweets and have been zoning for over a year now, I think I'm pretty sensitive. (Side note: Last week I snacked on like 10 Tostitos chips, made me feel like crap for hours.) Katie commented on one of my posts that I might be a candidate for a PWO meal, looks like she was right. This will take up another post after I research PWO meals.

So in conclusion, it looks like I will attempt to make two modifications: 1) try to eliminate dairy and peanuts from my diet (this will be really hard), and 2) increase my diet to 22 blocks. I don't want to make too many modifications because if I make too many changes I won't be able to figure out what works. If these two mods work, then everything will be hunky-dory and I’ll be shredded like this guy. If they don’t, or if my fat loss plateaus again, then I will look into adding PWO meals.

I find the increase to 22 blocks a little crazy because 21 is listed for a hard gainer, 1 block more than even a X-large male. I always figured X-large meant someone 6'6" weighing 280, but perhaps it's all relative. The increase means I'll have to switch to 5 block meals, with some 4 block snacks. ...That’s actually not too far away from what I've been eating recently, where I was eating 5 four-block meals (basically had two snacks together).

I have also started to incorporate Paleo Kits into my daily routine. Although they are fairly expensive, I find them worth the convenience. I'm going to count them as lunch, since they have 5 blocks of protein. What I usually eat as a 4 block lunch will now be my 4 block snack.

Looks like I'm really starting to tweak this stuff. I always figured that by simply zoning and crossfitting I would end up with a body fat % under 10, but it looks like I'm going to have to kick it up another notch in order to lose more fat. There is always room for improvement, and I'm glad because otherwise things would get boring.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd say the oats in your oatmeal would be more of an issue than the dairy. Lots of people paleo + dairy but you can't paleo + grains...

Terry (kettlebellguy.com) said...

Thanks for the good write up. Interesting stuff. I am working on my diet also and there is so much information it was nice to see your take on things.

Terry

Adam said...

Anonymous, you make a good point. I've never thought of oats as a grain, but I guess its GI is fairly high.

Terry,

Glad to hear from you! Hope everything's working out with the diet!

Anonymous said...

I don't think high GI has anything to do with whether or not something is classified as a grain. From dictionary.com:
Oat - Any of various grasses of the genus Avena, especially A. sativa, widely cultivated for their edible grains.

Corn is also a grain.

Adam said...

Anonymous, sorry for the misunderstanding. I was not trying to dispute the fact that oats are grains. What I meant behind the GI comment was that one of the main points of paleo is to avoid insulin spiking foods. Insulin spiking foods score high on the GI. Thus, if one were to eat oats (that score low on the GI), one would be following one aspect of the "spirit" behind paleo, if not following the letter of the paleo law. Not advocating the consumption of oats, merely that if oats had a low GI they would not cause the insulin spike that the paleo diet tries to avoid. ...Who are you anyway? You seem to have a lot of nutritional info, care to share so I may ask you questions that I come across in pursuit of dietary perfection?

Christine said...

Adam,
If you want to guide yourself toward Paleo, I recommend getting out the Eat Right for your Type book and reading the Blood Type O diet. Like Anonymous said, oats, barley, rye, wheat, etc are all gluten grains and give the most trouble. As you try to dumpX the grains switch first to quinoa, amaranth, Ezekiel bread and keep it to 25% of your carb blocks.

Ditto on the dairy... blood type O has limited dairy that is good, but there are a few cheeses that can cover you as you wean yourself away.

I have the book if you want to borrow...

Adam said...

Christine,

Yeah I heard Andrea talking about reading the Eat for your type book, and now that I'm trying to learn more about nutrition I would be interested in a read. Is the type O specifically for people with Type O blood? I think I'm type O, although I'm not sure.

I really do need to come up with some new meals that are paleo/zone. Dropping dairy and oats from my diet won't be tough, but figuring out a new meal plan will.

Bacon said...

Yes, eating paleo does limit the amount of insulin spiking foods that a person can eat but just because oats are low GI doesn't make them fit. It's the reason why they are on the Zone "favorable" carb list, though. If you need higher carb foods while eating paleo sweet potato or squash is a good option but grains are still a big no-no. Something having to do with anti-nutrients...I'm not very sciencey so I tend not to pay a whole lot of attention to the why as much as just how I feel personally.

As far as your block calculations you might be overestimating your activity level. Generally, for Crossfitters who follow the 3/1 schedule they suggest a .7 multiplier and you have to do A LOT of extra work to bump up to even .8 - so that would mean:
205-25 = 180
180*.7 = 126
126/7 = 18
OR
205-37 = 168
168*.7 = 117.6
117.6/7 = 16.8

That's somewhere between 17 and 18 blocks depending on your actual BF%. If you're concerned with fat loss try swapping out grains/dairy for more veggies/meat and see if that makes a difference. Or swap out carb blocks for fat. A 5 block increase is a pretty big jump to make.

Adam said...

Bacon,

1) thanks for the advice! I was uncertain what activity level Crossfit qualified as. Although 22 blocks has been my goal, I very rarely reach that since it's so much food. I'll take your advice and step it down a notch to like 18. I guess the next step is to take the oatmeal and diary out of my diet. It is going to be tough for me to get used to the new reciepes.

Adam said...

Oh, also:
2) I love your name

Bacon said...

There's a good video of Robb Wolf talking about zone blocks and the multiplier - it was posted on the main site a while back... But basically he says that it takes A LOT of extra work to increase from the .7 and that even if you're doing CF + CFE you'd only bump it up to .75 maybe. His site is full of GREAT info, too. www.robbwolf.com and Orie Shafer has some great stuff on his site: eatmovethrive.blogspot.com including recipes.

As far as cutting out grains/dairy, I've done it before and it's not that hard. You can't go wrong with bacon and eggs for breakfast (and avocado and fruit)- and it's probably just as fast as oatmeal. Not to mention everything tastes better cooked in bacon fat So yeah, guess that explains my name which was actually not my choice but I've gotten used to it...

Christine said...

Adam,
I will have the book for you when you get back... There is a blood type diet for each blood type, but yes the majority of people are O. Which is why so many people succeed on South Beach, Atkins, and Zone type diets... they all tend toward lower carb, lower glycemic which is a good part of the blood type O. There is a Cook Right for Your Type cookbook as well. I will hunt and see if I have that one around. Also. Dr. D'Adamo has a recent book that goes beyond blood type to genotypes and gets more precise looking at fingerprint markings, relative length of the extremities (long torso? short legs?) that apparently are markers of how we adapt to our environment - food included.

It is so nice to read these posts... sweet potatos and butternut squash are very O friendly veggies and while I limit them because of the GI, I hate feeling guilty for eating them!