Metabolism and Fat loss

• When your body takes on alcohol it has no means by which to store it as an energy source. It must therefore prioritise its metabolism which consequently restricts the use of fat and carbohydrates as a fuel source. They will instead be stored for later use.
• Add to this the fact that alcohol also causes a release of insulin that increases the metabolism of glycogen. This will again spare your existing fat from being used as an energy source making fat loss more difficult.
• It increases the levels of cortisol within the body. A high cortisol level encourages fat storage.
• Finally, alcohol interferes with the metabolism of protein and fat in the liver and causes an impaired production of pancreatic enzymes that are required for fat metabolism, making it more difficult to control your levels of body fat.

Exercise performance

There are detrimental effects on exercise performance capacity. Alcohol consumption has a negative effect on your energy supply. It impairs the metabolic process during exercise by decreasing the use of glucose and amino acids by muscle tissue. This makes it harder to work at higher levels of intensity. When you have alcohol in your bloodstream it will feel as if you are working just as hard to reach only a moderate intensity as you would on days when you are feeling fresh and in the zone. Your rate of perceived exertion (RPE) will be altered.

Other negative side effects on sports performance include

Nutrient deficiency

Alcohol irritates the lining of the stomach having a detrimental effect on the absorption and utilisation of vitamins and minerals. Many of these are catalysts for the processing of carbohydrates and protein needed for energy and muscle repair.

Dehydration

Alcohol is of course responsible for dehydration. Just ask anyone who’s woken up with a banging headache following a drink or two the night before.

Sleep

You need to be well rested to perform at your optimum. Alcohol consumption reduces muscle recovery by disrupting your sleep pattern; the optimal time your body repairs itself after a training session. Muscles require human growth hormone release and a disrupted sleep cycle can reduce your output by as much as 70%. Research has shown that alcohol in the bloodstream can decrease not only sleep duration, but the overall quality of sleep.

Overall health

If you’re feeling run down, drinking alcohol is likely to exacerbate the problem. It will impair your defences and weaken the strength of your immune system making you more prone to illness and therefore likely to have to miss out on some of your training.

Of course, as with most things moderation is the key and there’s no harm in the odd drink. But the choice is yours; if you have specific training or fat loss goals you are trying to achieve it’s worth remembering all of the above. An athlete who is tired and hung-over cannot perform at optimal levels. You will be robbing yourself of your full potential.

Running is the easiest, simplest and cheapest form of exercise. All you need are some shorts and trainers and boom you’re gone! If you haven’t really run to get fit before or you are just a bit unsure of how to go about it let me tell you….

If you are running with the aim of reducing your body fat, then you want to run at an easy pace for 30 minutes minimum. A good way to judge your pace is by your breathing. If you are out of breath you are running too hard. You want to be able to keep a conversation, which is why running with a pal is such a great idea. It’s also a great motivator to get you out of the door, as you won’t want to let your running partner down.

A great challenge to increase your fitness quickly is the 30:30:30 challenge. Which is 30 runs, of 30 minutes in 30 days. It is better to increase the amount of runs you do per week rather than doing fewer longer runs. You might want to try this challenge after a few months of running if you are a beginner and build your way to it. This challenge really boosts your fitness.

If you don’t want to run, then you can join a class. Signing up to a class makes you commit to it and is a great place to start. If you are worried about training with other people because you are maybe overweight or unfit, well it’s more than likely they are thinking the same thing. There’s a camaraderie and bond that can be made between strangers, all it takes is a glance and a smile from someone to help you get through that last few reps.

Long Endurance Training

With continuous long endurance training such as long distance running (on the road or on the treadmill), you are routinely forcing your body to perform the same cardiovascular challenge, by repeating the same movement, at the same rate, over and over again, without variation, and without rest, which is unnatural for your body. Yet nature has designed your body to adapt to whatever environment you encounter. If you ask it to perform this activity repeatedly and routinely, it will gradually change the systems involved to meet the challenge more effectively.

But what adaptive changes does this activity cause?

The body’s primary adaptation will be to become more efficient at light, long, continuous, low output as you are asking it to repeatedly go non-stop for long distances, against low resistance, at a relatively slow speed.

One of the ways that your body adapts is by gradually rebuilding your heart, lungs, blood vessels and muscles as small as possible but still have the minimum energy required.

Forced, continuous, endurance exercise induces your heart and lungs to ‘downsize’, which will still allow you to go further, more efficiently, with less rest and less fuel.

Interval Training

Short bursts of exercise tell your body that storing energy as fat is inefficient, since you never exercise long enough to utilise much fat during each session. Carbohydrates, which are stored in muscle (as glycogen) rather than fat, burn energy at high rates. Exercising for short periods will use the glycogen and burn much more fat after exercising while you replenish the glycogen. This is based on Excess Post Oxygen Consumption or, in other words, the ‘after burn’ effect.

This can be explained as while exercising at a higher intensity, your body will use a lot more of its glycogen stores for energy, which will need to be replenished after exercise. This replenishing process requires energy and as the demand upon the body is now no longer high, it has time to utilise the Aerobic Energy System, which breaks down fat stores so you continue to burn fats for longer after a high intensity workout.

Take a look at these 2 examples:

Session 1: You do 20 minutes on the exercise bike at continuous pace with no rest. Your heart rate is a constant 60% of your maximum heart rate.

Session 2: You do 20 minutes on the exercise bike in numerous short bursts of 15-45 seconds while resting (recovering) in between. Your heart rate fluctuates between 60% and 80% of your maximum heart rate.

What happens in each session?

Session 1: You burn a total of 150 calories. 60% of those calories would come from fats and 40% from glycogen. This means you burned 90 calories from fats and 60 calories from glycogen.

Session 2: You burn a total of 250 calories as the demand is much greater. This time only 40% of those calories would come from fats and 60% from glycogen. This means you burned 100 calories from fats and 150 calories from glycogen.

What does this mean?

In the same amount of time, i.e. 20 minutes, you burned 100 more calories in session 2 plus more calories from fats even though the percentage using fats decreased. Session 2 also depleted your muscle glycogen, meaning you need to replenish your glycogen stores and repair muscles after your workout. What do we use as energy to do this? Fats! So with session 2, you get the ‘after burn’ effect up to 24-48 hours after your workout.

After a few months, your body stops storing fat because it simply doesn’t need it. This is the opposite of conventional advice, which tells you to burn fat during exercise. But this only makes matters worse. This tells your body to make and store more fat so you’ll have something to burn during your next workout. This is why so many people get frustrated when they don’t see results after months of spending hours at the gym.

We are often informed of the many benefits of exercise, not least on this website. It improves health, boosts immunity, helps you manage your weight and protects your heart. But did you know it is also one of the best natural stress relievers there is? One could argue the case that it is in fact more effective than prescription drugs. Finally many GPs and psychotherapists are now beginning to prescribe exercise as a viable and proven way to address stress, anxiety and depression.

In the modern world the demands and pressures we find ourselves under on a daily basis can easily lead to stress related illnesses and burn out. Exercise can help to alleviate those pressures in a number of ways, helping to make life more manageable and therefore more enjoyable. There is no absolute definition of stress and no scale upon which it can be measured, but it manifests itself in numerous physical and emotional ways.

So how can exercise help? Firstly, let’s take a look at the chemistry and the physiological aspects.

Stress Response

Around 1500 biochemical reactions occur in the body during the stress response, triggering a reaction commonly referred to as the fight or flight response. The body is preparing itself to expend energy in order to fight or escape. In today’s society most of our stressors are psycho-social in origin and rarely require such physical measures. However, the body responds in the same way whether those threats be physical or emotional, and the by-products of such biochemical reactions (the triggering of neurotransmitters, excretion of various hormones etc.) will continue to travel around the system. It is these by-products that need to be managed through stress relief. Stress in itself is not dangerous and is necessary in many situations, but a chronic overload can be a causal or contributing factor to virtually all major illnesses due to the effect it has on the body’s immunity (e.g. through excess long term cortisol excretion).

Because regular exercise is physical it can stimulate the reaction of fight or flight and in doing so removes those by-products of the stress response. As such, regular exercise allows the body to return to homeostasis (balance) more quickly and efficiently, thus reducing the physical impact of psycho-social stress.

Studies have also shown that for regular exercisers, the ability to adapt to the physical stresses of training enables you to become more resilient to the many physiological manifestations of other daily stresses. There is a less extreme response and you are better able to cope.

Endorphins

In the 1970s research was being undertaken on drug addiction. During these studies scientists also discovered that the brain produces its own set of neurochemicals which share the same neural receptors with drugs such morphine, opium and heroin, but are actually far more potent than any of these substances.

These neurochemicals (endorphins and enkephalins) are released by the pituitary gland, through the spinal cord and from other areas of the nervous system to calm us down in times of both physical and emotional stress. By binding to opioid receptors in neurons, they block the release of neurotransmitters and thus inhibit the transmission of pain impulses to the brain. These are the same chemicals that can give you that natural high after a tough workout, hence the term ‘runner’s high’. If you’ve ever experienced that sense of euphoria after a tough cardio session, you will know exactly why it’s called a high – you are feeling the effects of a mood elevation that has been induced by endorphins. New technology and imaging methods have allowed scientists to monitor how endorphins interact with other cells in the brain and they can therefore prove that they do play a role in the rush that exercise can produce. Further research needs to be undertaken to categorically state if it is the endorphins themselves that cause this state of well-being or if it is as an indirect consequence of the inhibition of pain receptors, which in turn permits the effects of other neurotransmitters e.g. serotonin and dopamine to be enhanced.

As with all types of exercise, instant results are not attainable. You still have to put the effort in to achieve this high. The release of endorphins generally occurs within around 30 minutes from the start of a cardiovascular training session.

Here are some of the psychological ways that physical activity can be of benefit in the battle against stress.

Taking time out

When you take time out to exercise you are removing yourself from the elements in your life that may be adding to your stress levels. Having something else to focus on will make your worries disappear for that time you are training. Focusing on technique, the way your body is moving, your breathing, counting the number of laps you are swimming or the kilometres you are running all distract the mind from the situations that may be causing you to suffer from stress. Just going for a walk can clear the mind both physically and mentally. The increased flow of blood and therefore oxygen and nutrients to the brain helps to flush out any toxic build up, helping you to think more clearly, and often more rationally.

Meditation

Practices such as yoga or tai-chi include elements of meditation, focusing on breathing techniques and fluid movements. However if this is not your ‘thing’ the rhythmical nature of activities such as swimming, running and cycling can have a similar effect.

Self-esteem

Exercise really does help to boost self esteem. The sense of achievement gained from reaching a fitness goal and the changes you will see in your body can increase your levels of confidence which can then be transferred to other parts of your life. A positive self image can negate the psychological effects of stress. When you feel better about yourself you are more equipped to cope with whatever life throws at you.

In summary, virtually any form of exercise can help you relieve stress; from aerobic to weight-training, yoga to walking the dog. You need to find the method that suits you and make it part of your lifestyle. Give it a go.

Many studies (such as the one below my blog) have been done to prove this fact, but the best study that you can refer to is one on yourself. So if you are not that well in tune with your body and mind I suggest you keep a food and exercise diary and comment how you feel at the end of each day that you do train and also on the days that you do not train and make the comparison.

When this fact is reinforced and you have had a personal experience with it, next time you try and talk yourself into not training or for reaching for the wrong food, you can remind yourselves that ‘You’ve got to give energy to get energy’!

We have all had an indulgent day, weekend or holiday at some stage, but it is identifying that by not listening to our body when it is lethargic and crying out for help that we can sink into a week/s, months or longer of inactivity and poor eating because of the exhausted excuse of ‘I am not training because I am always tired’.

So you need to remember the following to keep your energy levels high. All of the tips below require energy, preparation, consistency, discipline and focus to set your lifestyle up in a way that will give energy back but the results are well worth it and they will have you flying high.

My Top 10 tips to keep your energy high

1. Always eat breakfast
2. Do a weekly shop and make sure it contains all of the foods to keep you eating healthy and avoid all the foods that put you off track (remember… you are what you eat!!)
3. Drink at least 2 liters of water a day and detox with hot water lemon and/or green tea
4. Sleep at least 6-8 hours per night
5. Manage your diary to slot in training time (exercise at least 4 times per week)
6. Keep a food diary to keep in tune of what you are eating and how you feel
7. Eat small portions every four hours and a snack is not a meal (it is just a snack for example 10 walnuts, small pot of natural yoghurt)
8. Cut out or limit the sugar and processed foods such as crisps
9. Make time for yourself to relax and recharge your batteries
10. Stay positive…negative energy is draining and holds you back from reaching your goals

See below from WebMD Health News

“We live in a society where people are always looking for the next sports drink, energy bar, or cup of coffee that will give them the extra edge to get through the day,” says researcher Tim Puetz, PhD, also of UGA. “But it may be that lacing up your tennis shoes and getting out and doing some physical activity every morning can provide that spark of energy that people are looking for.”

In a study, published in Psychological Bulletin, the researchers analyzed 70 studies on exercise and fatigue involving more than 6,800 people.
“More than 90% of the studies showed the same thing: Sedentary people who completed a regular exercise program reported improved fatigue compared to groups that did not exercise,” says O’Connor. “It’s a very consistent effect.”
The results show that regular exercise increases energy and reduces fatigue.
The average effect was greater than the improvement from using stimulant medications, including ones used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy.
Researchers say nearly every group studied — from healthy adults, to cancer patients, and those with chronic conditions including diabetes and heart disease — benefited from exercise

MSG is extremely damaging and you should know about it…..…!

MSG(E621) is classed as an anti nutrient and is commonly used to enhance taste-active compounds balancing and rounding the overall taste of certain dishes and is commonly found in meat, fish, poultry, many vegetables, sauces, soups and marinade, so this means it’s in nearly every processed thing we eat! What is more worrying is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Union consider MSG as safe…..this is madness. MSG prevents the absorption of nutrients from foods and is an excitotoxin which means it causes nerve cell damage and cell death, so with that reason said why bother eating at all…!? The only reason we eat food is to absorb nutrients to help create homeostasis. The Industrial food manufacturers market and use MSG as a flavor enhancer because it balances, blends and rounds food, it’s obvious why food manufactures are putting this in food but I think it’s unfair and unlawful that they sneakily say on food labels “No MSG added” this just means they have brought ingredients from other companies that have put in MSG and then they can say “we have not added any MSG” when there is clearly MSG in their product. Kid’s foods are abundantly enhanced with MSG which is also worrying as they are found to be 10 times more susceptible to the damaging effects than adults. Here is another one to keep you thinking about MSG it also induces a rapid crossing of the blood brain barrier so exerting the toxic effects on the brain, nervous and endocrine system within seconds of ingesting the foods, this is linked to degenerative neurological disorders such as paralysis, muscle weakness, poor coordination, loss of sensation, seizures, confusion, pain and altered levels of consciousness as well as headaches, migraines and Alzheimer’s.

I hope this has got you thinking……..!?

Scott Cooke

www.scottcookep.co.uk

In this feature we will provide you with health and fitness suggestions giving you postive ideas to help you improve your health and fitness through gift ideas for you to feed to your loved one’s if their a bit stuck for an idea for you.

Wishing you a very merry Health and Fitmass, 2011  Active Edge Solutionsfrom

All REPs Registered Exercise Professionals:

• Have met agreed NOS.
• Hold approved and recognised qualifications.
• Are competent to deliver at their recognised levels.
• They are committed to on-going continuous professional development.
• They are legally covered by appropriate insurance.

REPs registered instructors offer a wide range of experience and skills and will hold qualifications and have gained entry to the register through a a wide range of options such as:

•  Gym Instruction
•  Group Exercise to Music
•  Water based Exercise
•  Advanced Fitness Instructor/Personal Training etc.

Groups of people that recognise REPs as the professional body for the health and fitness industry include bodies such as the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Department of Health (DH).

It is strongly recommended by REPs that the general public ONLY use the expertise of a Registered Exercise Professional…

If you are a member of health club, or attend a community fitness class or wish to hire a personal trainer. DO check to see if the instructors are REPs registered.

By choosing a REPs registered exercise and fitness professional your health and safety is always paramount in the delivery of the class or fitness instruction. To find a registered professional visit:  www.exerciseregister.org.