Grains in a fat-burning diet?

Craig Ballantyne weighs in:

Q: Craig - It seems that everywhere I turn I see yet another nutritionist suggesting that we all steer clear of, or severely reduce our intake of grains, whether in whole grain form or not. I think I also read that you had mentioned that your diet contains very little in the way of grains.
I guess I'm interested in knowing your thoughts on this subject, how much grain you do eat (probably oatmeal?), and what your primary sources of carbs are (my assumption would be vegetables, fruit and small amounts of dairy).

Answer from Craig:

I have found that reducing grains did two things for me.

1) Eliminated post-meal tireness/eliminated post-meal redued mental alertness (in layman's terms, I feel I don't have a lack of energy after eating)

2) Helped me drop another 1-2% body fat and be able to maintain it. Taking the abs to another level as you can see on Turbulence Training for Abs.

That said, could 1 & 2 be "all in my head"? Maybe. I don't think so, but maybe.
I still get lots of carbohydrates from:

a) Fruit - about 10 servings a day
b) Vegetables - lots of servings, but few calories
c) 2 cups chocolate milk after exercise - 50+grams of carbohydrates
d) Nuts - you get carbohydrates in nuts & i eat a lot of raw nuts
e) Kidney Beans or Amy's Organic Chili - I eat a can every other day
f) Reward meals (Last night was Canadian Thanksgiving - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, asparagus, and carrots)

As I've mentioned before, there are a lot of diets that work for weight loss. We all need to find one that suits our personality, environment, and genetic response to food.

http://turbulencetraining.blogspot.com/2008/10/grains-carbohydrates-for-fat-burning.html

I thought this was pretty interesting. Craig's diet sounds a lot like mine in some respects. I have a few servings of oatmeal a week, and every so often when I go out to eat I'll have some starch, usually rice because Paul and I both love Asian cuisines. But other than that I've pretty much cut grains out of my diet, and it's working well for me. I do eat way more fruit than is allowed on many fat-loss diets, and I also have nuts and some dairy. Beans, not so much because I don't especially care for them, but I keep meaning to revisit that because they're wonderful sources of fiber and protein as well as carbs, and I love minestrone soup which has beans in it, so I probably just need to find some good recipes.

Anyhoo, the part of Craig's answer that I liked best was where he says that there are lots of different approaches that work, and that each person needs to find the one that suits him or her best, taking into account personality, environment and genetic response to food.

My own personality and environment (by which I mean my family and sometimes my job) absolutely require me to have a Cosmo every so often. How about you?

More bodyweight exercise ideas

http://koreantaekwondo.tripod.com/articles/exercises.htm

These exercises look great for developing muscular strength, endurance and flexibility as well as cardiovascular capacity.

There are also some fun, by which I mean fiendishly horrible, ideas for exercise sequencing. That Deck of Cards thing? Blech. How do people come up with this sh*t? Wish I had!

(I'm sort of thinking I might try it today, using kettlebell swings and kettlebell clean and press as my two exercises.)

Update: Tried it. Holy sweatfest! Mr. Taekwondo Dude claims the goal is to get through the deck in 12-15 minutes, but I don't think that's physiologically possible with the exercises I chose. The swings, maybe, but not the clean and press since onceI finished on one side I still had the other to do. Which, by the way, sucks, because it meant I had a total of 510 reps to power through instead of a measly 340. Anyhoo, I got through the deck in about 40 minutes, and I wasn't really taking breaks except to turn over cards, and, you know, curse myself for taking this on.

It was sort of weirdly fun, though, and I probably will do it again although since there are four suits in a deck I think I'll pick four exercises next time for a little more variety. Maybe two plyometric and two total-body core-focused moves, or something like that. Burpees (with the pushup), jump lunges, in and out power squats, and ... I dunno.

I think this could be a great format for a group ex class, don't you?

FW4FL Workout Two: Revenge of the Nerd

Josh almost made me throw up, and this time it wasn't because of his sophomoric remarks re: "hot girls"!

I never did get around to doing anything resistance-training-ish yesterday although I did take a 90 minute ballet class in addition to teaching a pretty intense cycling class, so it wasn't exactly a rest day. So that meant Fighter Workout Two was on the agenda for today. The numbers beside each exercise are the number of reps I got each round

Band assisted pullups: 24, 19, 16
Burpees, 18, 19, 19
Pushups, 26, 24, 23
Burpees, 19, 20, 19
KB swings (8 kg bell): 30, 30, 30

I was able to keep moving for pretty much the entire minute each round, although obviously as my muscles fatigued my rep tempo slowed way down on the pullups especially. The 3 minute break didn't seem excessive for this workout because the rounds were so intense.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to do lunges followed by bear crawls followed by lunges followed by more bear crawls followed by more lunges.

How much assistance do pullup bands provide?

Marie asked this question below, and since it's a very good question I did some research. It turns out the answer's not a simple one, which sort of makes sense given the variable nature of rubber resistance/assistance.

Basically, the idea here is that the more stretched-out the band is, the more help you're getting. Say once the band is looped over your pullup bar it hangs 30 inches below the bar (as is the case with mine). That means once I hoist myself up to where I'm only 30" below the bar, I'm no longer getting help from the band. But that's okay, because once my muscles are in that almost-fully contracted position I no longer need the help.

Now, suppose I put a couple 25-lb dumbbells in the loop of the band, and one of them falls out and lands on my toe. That means I have to hop around and yell and curse while holding my injured foot. It also means I have to replace the dumbbell in the loop of the band so I can find out how much the band needs to be stretched out to give me 50 lbs of assistance. As it happens, the two weights together pull the band down another 30 inches or so, meaning that that when I'm 5 feet below the bar I'm getting about 50 lbs of assistance. Since that in fact is about my start position, at least when I do my assisted pullups with one knee in the band as opposed to two feet in the band, my work is done.

Here's a link to a thread on the Crossfit board that may explain it better than I did. (Note that they leave out the part about the dumbbell falling out of the band. That's because they're guys and afraid of looking stupid. But I'm pretty sure it happened to them, just as it did to me.)

http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=28095

Another FW4FL workout from Josh, plus a couple more takes on the "300" workout

(FW4FL= Fighter Workout For Fat Loss, in case it's not obvious)

The five movements are: pullups (assisted if necessary), burpees, pushups, burpees, and dumbbell swings. Again, you're supposed to do each for a minute, rest 3 minutes, then repeat for a total of three rounds. I may give this a shot later today before I teach my spin class, or I may not.

As I mentioned yesterday, I like it that these workouts are short and don't require a lot of equipment. Obviously that's great for home workouts, and even in the gym setting I can't always count on equipment being available when I need it, which is key when you're doing any kind of metabolic work.

Josh doesn't really explain how to make these workouts progressive. Maybe he doesn't think progressive overload is necessary to achieve hotness or perhaps he just doesn't know how to spell "progressive." But if you were so inclined, you could do something along the lines of:

Week One--3 rounds, rest 3 minutes between rounds
Week Two-3 rounds, rest 2 minutes between rounds
Week Three-4 rounds, rest 2 minutes between rounds
Week Four--4 rounds, rest 1 minute between rounds
Week Five-5 rounds, rest 1 minute between rounds.

Okay, I lied a little bit. Josh does mention harder and easier variations of many of the exercises, so you could always substitute a harder variation as your strength builds. Still, I think for fat loss it's more effective to add volume/density than to change your exercise selection too frequently.

Now, for Josh's version of the "300" workout, which he created for one of his "hot" clients:

25x Pull-ups @ 50lbs assistance
50x Deadlift @ 70lbs
50x Push-ups
50x Box Jump @ 12” box
50x Sit-ups
50x Dumbbell Clean and Press @ 20lbs (DB must touch floor between reps)
25x Pull-ups @ 50lbs assistance

She did it in 38 minutes. Very respectable, but I bet Wendy could do it in half that time.

And just for grins, here's Boyfriend Craig's Bodyweight "500" Workout, which looks truly appalling:

50 Prisoner Squats
50 Pushups
25 Jumps
25 Stability Ball Leg Curls
50 Stability Ball Jackknifes
50 Step-ups (25 reps per side)
25 Pull-ups (NO substitutions)
50 Forward Lunges (25 reps per side)
50 Close-grip Pushups
50 Inverted Rows
50 Squats
25 Chin-ups (NO substitutions)

I would like to give this a shot, but I already know that I don't have the strength in my pulling muscles to be able to do 25 unassisted pullups in less than, say, an hour. And that's on a strong day. So I'm afraid I will be making substitutions--nothing drastic, but until I get stronger I'll be doing band-assisted pullups and chins. Sorry, Craig!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here's the original "300" workout:

Pullups - 25
Deadlifts with 135lbs - 50
Pushups - 50
24-inch Box jumps - 50
Floor wipers - 50
1-arm 36lbs Kettlebell Clean n Press - 50
Pullups - 25

I think the floor wipers are meant to be done with a barbell loaded at 135 lbs. Bear in mind that this workout was created as a fitness test for a male actor, the star of the film "300", who probably weighs more like 175-180. If you were to want to try this yourself. you'd want to adjust the poundages based on your own bodyweight to make it a fair test. I weigh about 115, and I'd probably use 80 lbs for the deadlifts, 20 lbs for the clean and press, and for the floor
wipers who the hell knows? I think they're sort of a stupid exercise. I have a client who used to do them with a bar loaded at 250 ... but then when I gave him some lousy little extended-leg reverse crunches he could barely manage 12 without dying! Floor wipers, apparently, don't do a thing to strengthen the transverse abdominis. So what's the point, really, other than to impress people with the fact that you can flail your legs from side to side while holding a massive barbell suspended over your chest?

I don't know. What do you all think?

So now that I've ragged on Josh a little ...

let me tell you about one of his workouts that I did today. It's one of six that he'll send you for free, just for letting him put you on his mailing list. I don't mind being on his mailing list. As I said below, I actually think he's on the right track when it comes to fat loss; I just wish he wouldn't assume we're all in it just to look hot to men.

The six workouts are from a "fighter" fat loss series he put together. You do 5 minute rounds, performing a different movement each minute. You rest 3 minutes between rounds, then repeat for a total of 3 rounds. The workout I did today consisted of dumbbell swings, bulgarian split squats, pushups, bulgarian split squats, and dumbbell swings. I did it exactly as prescribed by Josh, using a 15 lb dumbbell for the swings and no weight for the split squats. The rounds weren't a whole lot of fun while I was doing them, but the three minute recovery period for me seemed excessive, and I probably could've gone for a couple more rounds if I hadn't had to stop so I could teach my cycling class. But overall I liked the format and the more intermediate nature of the workout. This is something I definitely could see using with clients.

Also, a minute is hella long when you're doing pushups for the entire minute. I got 30 in round 1, 24 in round 2, and 30 again in round 3.

(Note: I'm not actually someone who says "hella." I just play that sort of person on the Internet.)

Josh Hillis: How Sexist Is Too Sexist?

I actually really like a lot of what Josh Hillis has to say about female fat loss and fitness on his website (www.josh-hillis-fitness.com), and while I don't have his e-book, Lose The Stubborn Seven, I'm guessing his program is pretty good. He's big on short intense workouts incorporating total body movements, kettlebell training, bodyweight stuff ... kinda like Alwyn and Craig and all my other pretend boyfriends.

But Josh will never be one of my pretend boyfriends, and here's why:

[W]hat is a good body fat percentage?

At 24-30% you are a pretty cute girl.

At 21-23% body fat or below, you are really, really hot. Whether you know it or not, guys are checking you out all of the time.

18-21% is rockstar lean.

I never take girls below 18%. Below 19% most girls don't have breasts, and they look like really fit boys. In fact, some of my female clients look better at 23% than they would at 18%. It's an individual thing to your body. But somewhere in the 18-23% range is where you are going to look really really hot.

So what happens when you get into that magical range of 18-23%? You're done. You are as hot as you ever need to be. Many clients have a really hard time accepting this. Which goes to show how bad the body dismorphia [sic] (distorted body image) is in our society. Or maybe it's just that most people can't ever deal with the fact that they are "good enough".

The truth is though, when you hit in that 18-23% range, you are a really really hot girl. You are done. Your next goal shouldn't be a body composition goal, it should be a fun goal. A fun goal like: Doing your first pullup, your first one legged squat, running your first marathon (or even better - running a really fast 5k time), climbing a mountian [sic], who knows, what ever [sic] is fun for you. Set a performance goal. And enjoy the fact that you are hot enough already.

The above is a direct quote from Josh's website.

Well, earth to Josh: you may not believe this, dude, but looking "hot" to men is not the ultimate goal of every female who walks into a gym.

Also, just FYI, trainer to trainer: it's not your place to tell a client what her goals should be. As long as what she wants is healthy, it's your job to help her achieve it even if it means her boobies get smaller and she becomes what you consider to be less physically appealing.

I mean, I appreciate the fact that you like a girl with some meat on her bones, and I actually agree with you that most men find the fitness-model bodytype to be physically impressive but not necessarily alluring. I also appreciate that you're encouraging women to aspire to a degree of leanness that is healthy and achievable for most.

But do you have to be such a complete sexist pig about it?