Newsletter #4 (Released April 19, 07)

Message from the Founder...

I bumped into an old client of mine over the weekend at the local grocery store. I had been out of town and I needed to re-stock my fridge so I passed a grocery store and began shopping. As I checked the banannas out, I saw my old client Joanie. She looked like she maintained alot of the muscle that we built on her frame and still kept the fat percentage low. She expressed how she missed our workouts and really needed discipline towards her diet. Her skin looked tight, but she still had some problem areas that needed targeting. We went over some exercise program manipulations that she can try to spark up her metabolism and I had to remind her of some old exercise favorites that she had forgotten. The next thing you know, we were standing in the produce section for 30 minutes! I told her of a great manual that was out that was perfect for her. It's called The Fat Loss Troubleshoot Guide. She jotted down the web address and checked it out. Two days later, she e-mailed me a question regarding calories and the effects on metabolism. I remember seeing a post from the author of The Fat Loss Troubleshoot Guide, Leigh Peele, regarding this very topic and I forwarded it to Joanie. This was it:

"Technical definition of a metabolism is "the chemical and physical processes continuously going on in living organisms." Obviously this can mean pretty much anything as far as your body goes. In short though when you breath your metabolism is running, when you sleep it is running, no matter what process you are completing or not completing in a day it takes on the role of supplying you with needed function and fuel of that process.

Depending on the demand you place on the body is what depends on its output. If you are demanding a high energy need, it is going to supply you with high energy function. This is of course depending upon you supplying it with enough fuel to do so. I don't mean to be vague but because there are so many different processes in the body, so many "jobs and roles" if you will, getting into the technical of each and every one would be quite a reply. However, here is a nice analogy to further explain what happens when you would approach starvation mode.

Now this gets overused and wrongly used, I have been guilty of it myself. It is much like when I say cardio and should say aerobic training. I say aerobic training and sometimes I get a complex look on a person face towards me of sheer confusion. I say cardio and they give the “ah yes” head bob. So in this instance what I am speaking of is the severe slow down of your metabolism and release of non-friendly fat loss hormones. In short this is how it works…

Familiar with the BMR (Basel Metabolic Rate) is the amount of energy expended while at rest. Just resting, just laying in bed, just having your body breakdown and perform internal needed function. Well that is not a set number, it can increase if you add addition of lean muscle mass or just a healthier and better functioning body in general. It can also decrease.

It can decrease naturally to some degree by age (this has to do with a natural loss of muscle mass over time, though it doesn’t have to decrease if you keep up that muscle mass). It can also decrease by a constant caloric deficit. When you are in a deficit to lose body fat (even a healthy one) your body is going to adjust its level of caloric energy usage and try and lessen the amount of energy it burns to “keep up” with demand. To put it another way we are going to use the lumberjack example.

Paul our lumberjack knows that in one day he is going to have to chop down 100 trees. He wakes up and starts going full blast with all his might chopping down those trees. However, because he is giving it his all right off the bat he runs out of steam and has to stop. He only in that day got to chop down 60 trees.

The next day he finds out again he has to chop down 100 trees again. This time he conserves his energy and paces himself taking breaks and he ends up chopping down all 100 trees because he expended the right amount of energy for each tree.

So your metabolism is just like Paul. At first it in a deficit it revs up and roars trying to keep up with the demand of energy. The body is smart and realizes that what it needs to do is to conserve so that it can provide you with better energy over the whole day. So what it is doing is slowing down. The more extreme that deficit, the more it is going to slow down and the less overall energy you are going to burn. Your body will lower its temperature. Your resting heart rate will lower. Your reaction time and neurological response will be impeded. Basically Paul is going to take a lot of lemonade breaks in the shade.

The lower and lower you get in your caloric intake the less happy your metabolism and body gets. It starts to release different hormones and signals to the brain. This varies from signals that suppress appetite, signals that induce low level output of serotonin so that fatigue and apathy are more apparent therefore causing you to move less. The body is very smart, it will physically and mentally slow you down.

You may be thinking what happens with fuel usage, why does my body not turn to fat first?

What is are ultimate form of fuel for intake? Carbohydrates.

When Carbohydrates are taking in to the body and stored they get set inside of muscle stored in form of glycogen. This glycogen is a great fuel source for energy and also easy to get rid of. Fat as a fuel source is stored in well this little tiny oil bubbles if you will. Not as easy to access for energy and more important is key in providing warmth for the body. Remember the part about temperature in the body dropping? Just simply to stay warm the body will choose the muscle glycogen for fuel before fat. This of course is again just one of many examples of all the either or/and process and choices that will occur if in too extreme of a deficit."

Good response, right? That's what I said.... - John

If you would like to find out more about The Fat Loss Troubleshoot Guide, Click here to view more details.

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Exercises That Make You Stand Apart

By John Izzo

Zercher Squats

Regarded as an alternative to back squats and front squats, Zercher Squats are great for athletes or experienced lifters that possess a degree of core strength and power. For those looking for advanced core strengthening exercises, the Zercher may be the one for you.

Yeah...its looks funny....yeah, it doesn't look as tough as a back squat with 315...but it is an ego killer. The emphasis on keeping the elbows locked at 90 degrees and the bar squeezed in the "crook" of your arms, makes the exercise difficult if you lack upperbody strength. That's why its important to start light and master the form. As you grasp the bar and walk backwards out of the squat rack, immediately you will feel the transfer of weight and change in the line of pull. Keeping the elbows locked and chest erect is important. Without those key points, the form will falter. As you descend, take a deep breath and brace the abdominals and sit back until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Contract your glutes and hamstrings and return to the top position

If you have trouble with the conventional Front Squat (elbows, lack of flexibility, etc) or and you have trouble sitting back with the Back Squat (knee pain, lack of ROM, etc) , try the Zercher. It is an excellent exercise for TVA and oblique recruitment and also works the spinal erectors, glutes, and hamstrings.

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