iamgeekfit

One of the challenges of IAMGEEKFITters is figuring out how to combine good eating and physical activity with the more time consuming, cerebral demands of like in academia, where the main physical requirement is to work in front of a computer screen. So are there models of folks who are in similar situations who have, however, found a path to working on getting healthy

A few months ago IAMGEEKFIT profiled PhD student Mike T. Nelson to see what motivates him to get out of the lab, and go pick up stuff and put it down, many times, all within the demands of courses, classes, exams and numerous other pay-the-rent obligations.

Today, i'm pleased to be able to introduce another person in the Research space, Suleiman Al-Sabah. Besides already holding a PhD and working as a fulltime researcher at Reading, Al has serious chops in karate and is also an RKC kettlebell instructor. The following presents an interview with Al, covering his research, his background in wellness, and how he keeps motivated to go move his body rather than spend more time at the microsope.

Read on for the interview

When did you complete your PhD and what is your research area?

2003, University of Leeds. I would call the area molecular pharmacology. More specifically I investigated a specific receptor that is now targeted by a molecule found in lizard venom to treat diabetes (Exendin-4 – trade name Byetta). It was very much a structure/function study or ‘mutate and see’.

Why did the gila monster (the lizard) evolve to have a component in it’s venom that potentiates insulin secretion in a glucose dependant manner?

If you could point readers to one article about your field, what would it be?

Maudsley, S., Martin, B., and Luttrell, L. M. The origins of diversity and specificity in G protein-coupled receptor signaling. (2005) J Pharmacol Exp Ther 314(2), 485-494

…a nice review but doesn’t cover some of the newer concepts.

and this one for the technique I use the most;

Krasel, C., Bunemann, M., Lorenz, K., and Lohse, M. J.Beta-arrestin binding to the beta2-adrenergic receptor requires both receptor phosphorylation and receptor activation.(2005) J Biol Chem 280(10), 9528-9535

Is choosing two papers cheating?

You use what you need, sir. No worries.

What's the research question you're most interested in right now, and how come?

What comes first, activation of c-src or receptor phosphorylation? and if that is too cryptic or esoteric I am investigating the mechanism of receptor desensitization (or the loss of response to a drug over time) and if that can be harnessed therapeutically.

Neat. Ok, how can drug desensitization over time be used beneficially, if that's what you're saying you want to investigate?

OK I bit more background first.

Traditionally drugs can be classed as agonists; which activate a receptor, antagonists; which block the effect of an agonist and partial agonists; that do not achieve the same level of response of a full agonist.

It has been shown that some receptors can signal even in the absence of an agonist (be it the natural agonist or a drug). This is termed ‘constitutive activity’. Some drugs that were thought to antagonists are in fact ‘inverse agonists’; that is they reduce the activity of a constitutively active receptor. One consequence of treatment with an inverse agonist can be, in some cases, receptor up regulation; this is an increase in the number of the receptors at the cell surface making the cell more responsive to a given stimulus. This may be beneficial in some circumstances but it is not the desired effect if you had initially set out to block that receptor. Receptor desensitization may be a way to achieve a ‘super receptor blocker’ especially if the drug is ‘biased’ to arrestin-dependant signaling as opposed to classical G-protein dependant signaling. I am just speculating here but understanding the mechanism of desensitization will help in the development of therapies that are limited by this process.

Interestingly, it is thought that topical capsaicin (used to relieve pain in some conditions) acts by causing desensitization of the nerves involved in carrying the pain signal and a recent review has highlighted the capsaicin receptor (TRPV1) as a potential target in the treatment of diabetes (Suri & Szallasi 2007).

Wow. Very cool. To move from your research to help folks at the micro level to the physical stuff at the macro: you're an advanced level karate practitioner. When did you start your MA practice? Has it ever conflicted with school?

I started when I saw at school at about the age of 13. No, it never conflicted with school. I would say it taught me focus and discipline and if anything, helped me in my academic endeavours. I was never a naturally gifted athlete and as my instructor was also my physics (Ron Hicks now a 5th Dan black belt ) teacher I could intellectualise the training process.

How did you maintain your MA practice through your PhD work?

I found the two complemented each other well. You need tenacity at get anywhere in either. Although I worked hard in the lab I had plenty of time to train. Looking back now I think I was training too much, but it never had a negative impact on my work. I know many PhD students that spend too much time procrastinating, they end up working late as a result and I never found that I was very productive late in the evening. Blowing of some steam in the dojo was a better option.

Was karate your main physical activity or were there other things you did either in the gym or at home as part of a "work out"?

Initially.

I was one of the top ranking karateka at the university club and was encouraged by our instructor, the mighty Bob Rhodes to train at the city club where I found my self at the bottom of the ranking order. These guys pretty much made up the national team. I was getting thrown around like a rag doll and though I needed to do something to get stronger so I started weight training.

Of course this was really bodybuilding, which was not what I needed. It was about this time that I discovered the work of Pavel Tsatsouline. ‘Beyond Stretching’ really changed the way I trained as did ‘Power to the People’ and later ‘The Russian Kettlebell Chalenge’. I used to deadlift at lunch time at the university weight room which was 5 min from my lab and I got hold of a kettlebell from Stan Pike and started training with that. I even convinced the university sports center to buy a pair of kettlebells, I don’t think they would have agreed if they knew what they were.

Most folks who are working on their PhD's are obsessed with the degree, especially the dissertation: it's all encompassing and it becomes a great way to say no to things like working out or eating right because, heck there's just no time; other priorities, etc. So how you managed to keep up with your practice is of moment.

I think that you have to be obsessed with, or at least passionate about, your subject if you are going to pursue it to PhD level. In the life-sciences there is also the problem that there is often very little correlation between the amount of work you put in and the results you get, very frustrating.

I find the trick to staying active is to make it a habit, setting goals also helps.

That way training does not eat into my time I just make it part of my day and working at a university makes really easy.

I get up early do some joint mobility/dynamic stretching and some karate based drills, sometimes a little kb work. I walk past the university (Reading these days) gym on the way to work and some days do a few pull-up ladders. Takes very little time and I am still in work early and alert. Depending on work some lunchtimes (“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) I will walk to the gym on campus and do a bit of exercise (a couple of sets of deadlifts or some more pull-ups) this takes less time than most take for lunch.

Then when I get home in the evening I will finish off any kettlebell training I had scheduled. I don’t have to find an hour plus where I work out. Even when I trained for a half-marathon at the start of the year most of my sessions were just running home from work the long way.

That is so awesome: running to work as half marathon training. Were you able to keep up your nutrition, too? If so what was your practice?

Well I have experimented with all kinds of weird and wonderful nutritional programs. It is very easy to eat inappropriately in our environment – lots of easily available junk food. So I always strived to eat correctly. Again, like training, it is easier to stick to a program/diet if you make it a habit.

What has changed if anything in your health/fitness practice since moving to full time research?

I train much less. Maybe it is because I am older but I couldn't’t recover from what I used do. I haven’t done a formal karate session for several years. This is partly because of karate politics but also most sessions start at 8pm. I find that I am much too alert after training and it takes a good few hours to wind down. I need my sleep. I also try to focus on one goal at a time instead of chasing everything at once like I once did.

You're a certified kettlebell instructor. Where, when and how did kettlebells come into your life?

At Leeds when I was a PhD student, about 2000. Stan Pike was the only person I could get hold of one from back then. I still have one of his early models. Now they are everywhere (except at Reading University!). It was from reading Pavel’s work that got me interested. He used karate terms like kime in his writing, that really intrigued me. I think training with kettlebell improved my karate, they definitely improved my stamina, flexibility and posture.

What made you decide to certify?

I wanted to make sure I was training correctly. I had already decided that this was going to my main from of exercise for the foreseeable future and there is more to the RKC style of training than just lifting a round weight with a handle. It is the training system, not the training tool.

You may be interested to know that somebody I used to train with (karate) has now started his own kettlbell instructor’s certification (www.KettlebellSeminars.co.uk ). I have been training with kettlebells for as long as him. I wanted to make sure I was still learning and I am please to say that I learnt a lot at the RKC.

Have any of your colleagues picked up the KB habit from you?

Some did in Leeds. Not many of my colleagues in Reading have, although some friends have, my wife has. I think my colleagues see it as a weird macho thing not the incredibly time-efficient and effective all-round fitness tool that it is. I think they prefer their Wii fits. I want to drop a KB on a Wii fit.

i would like to see that on you tube. What council would you have for grad students/RA's who say either

• a.they don't have the time to work out
• b.don't need to work out
• c. don't really need to eat right?

A) You do have time. It doesn’t have to be hours straight. It can be few minutes spread through out the day. You are not working every waking hour are you? Lean to exercise effectively and efficiently and you will find the time easily.

B) Does your back hurt? What does your posture look like? If you sit at a desk or work in a lab all day you probably need to do some form of exercise, but that’s just my opinion. A good exercise program should enhance your life.

C) If you have made the decision to eat ‘right’ then you will find the time. Organize yourself so that eating ‘right’ is a habit. There is a lot of argument as to what ‘right’ is (e.g. vegetarians, high carb low carb etc). But ‘wrong’ is probably the highly processed stuff you get in packets. Do some research (It’s what you are good at), and make informed decisions.

Any other comments you'd like to add about either recommendations/tips for grad students thinking about starting a fitness/eating program?

I work in the health sciences, and I am surprised that other who do, don’t make exercise a priority in their life. The side-effects are great! We in the developed world have a struggle on our hands avoiding the diseases of our affluence. Making exercise and eating appropriately second nature seems like a sane approach.

Thanks for your time, Al. Great discussion.

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Some folks mistake strength for massive muscles, or take strength to be expressed as feats of strength, like tearing a phone book in half, or throwing a stone half way across a football field. But strength is our ability to contract our muscles to do work: to hold a pencil; to sit up; to roll over in bed. All of these movements represent the coordinated actions of muscles working together to support us moving against gravity in physical space.

While part of building strength is about building new muscle, Interestingly, a significant component of strength is about enhancing recruitment of muscle fibers to support a particular action. Strength is as much about building muscle fiber as it is about training these fibers neurologically to work together better.

Some exercises are particularly good at developing this kind of muscular development and coordination for strength. These are the Turkish Get Up , the Front Squat, the Pull Up. Each of these can be done either with added weight or "naked" - as bodyweight- only exercises.

Each of these moves has particular patterns of strength and movement it will challenge

The Turkish Get Up (TGU) has apparently a history in the late 19th through early 20th century strong"men" culture. From wherever it harkens, it is a seemingly unique move in that the practitioner moves from a completely prone position to a completely standing position, and then back down to prone. The movement is also done focusing on either side of the body, thus working balance and coordination as well as strength. Over the past few years, the TGU has become a staple particularly in the Kettlebell community (here's a version of Steve Cotter doing a lunge variant). The RKC community in particular has refined the TGU to an art of movement precision.

One of the best things about the TGU is that each phase of it can be worked separately: one can make progress by working up from prone to elbow and down again, left side for a few reps; right side for a few reps, for instance, just to focus on upper body work, as Anthony Diluglio demonstrates (1) (2).

Overall, the movement works maintaining tension through the core muscles to maintain posture while moving through a suite of positions. For folks who like pilates and yoga, add a kettlebell to the TGU and it becomes, to borrow a Terry Pratchet Disc World phrase, yoga with Rocks In .

The Front Squat. There are many ways to do a squat: with a bar bell held overhead, with one held at the clavicles or on the shoulders, with dumb bells, with bodyweight only. There's even a single leg variant called a Pistol (that i love, here's a great tutorial, and that is featured in Pavel Tsatsouline's Naked Warrior).

The particular variant featured here is the front squat - either naked or with kettlebells.

The great thing about the front squat is that it works the whole body, in particular, the backside, the legs, the ab area. It's called the front squat because usually a weight is held in front of the athlete rather than on the shoulders (or lower). The back is kept straight, the body bends at the hips, and the person actively "pulls themselves down into the hole" as Pavel describes it, and then comes back up. Breathing, holding tension just right, is a key part of this move, as Will Williams demonstrates. Will demonstrates the move with two kettlebells, but one can be used as well, grasping the handle with both hands.

Now for those just starting this move, it can be done just by holding the arms in front of the body or above one's head, and then going down to the edge of a (stable) chair, just touching butt to chair and back up. Doing a few sets of five of these, a few times a day, is a great way to build up strength, stamina and coordination, and can be done pretty much anywhere.

The Pull Up. The pull up is a traditional upper body exercise. It works arms, forearms, grip, the upper back, and, in the back, especially the great big side muscles, the lats. The better we use our lats, often the less likely it is we'll hurt our shoulders. The pull up is interesting, too, because the full pull up has the body suspended in space - not something that's experienced that often, but that has its own special neuromuscular adaptations.

Some people think they could never do a complete bodyweight pull up. While it's a challenge, it's not impossible for most healthy folks. There are many many ways to get into doing pull ups, including starting with feet on the floor. You can check out more on the hows and whys over at begin to dig.

For folks who are repping out a lot of pull ups, the move can be reinvigorated by adding a weight to it. If a weight belt isn't handy, a kettlebell has a super handle for a foot - looks rather cool, too, to do a pull up with a KB hanging off one's foot.

Sum Up: Technique.

Strength isn't just for body builders or elite athletes. It's for all of us who want to be able to do daily tasks without injury or exhaustion, from youth to age.

To put together a strong exercise program whether beginner or advanced, you don't need a whole lot of moves or a whole lot of gear. These three moves can be practiced either in collective sessions, or repeatedly throughout the day in what Tsatsouline calls in Power to the People "greasing the groove."

Indeed, the main thing in any of these movements is technique. Why? Good technique enhances the most effective recruitment of muscle fibers. This recruitment in turn enables more weight to be moved, and thereby enables effective development of strength.

Caveat: Get your Form Checked. The above descriptions are not meant as "how to's" but as pointers to simple moves you can carry out as part of an excellent foundational strength program. It's always a good idea to talk with a qualified trainer to offer and review good technique. Check your trainer's credentials; interview 'em. Here's a few pointers on how to assess potential trainers. You may not need a trainer to set up a program for you, but a good eye to tweak form can help you make quantum leaps in your progress.

Posted by at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems that carbohydrates are about to replace fat as the New Bad nutrient.

This may not seem like news for people who over the past decade+ have been chucking out everything of the hamburger but the pattie and the cheese. But of late on training sites and nutrition fora alike, the Cut Down Your Carbs message has been coming out loud but not clear - not clearly rationalized in any case - at all.

The Old Line was we get fat because we eat, well, Fat. Turns our we now know that's not the case. So what's our response? Let's find an equally simple paradigm to replace the old one. The New Line seems to be we get fat cuz we eat carbs. What makes us think that what i'll call the Anti Anti Fat Backlash of vilifying carbs as the New Fat is any more correct? Most over simplications are not. Has the Fat Fiasco taught us nothing? Well, it's taught us a whole bunch of names of different categories of Fat that we rarely celebrated before.

So, just as we're getting more sophisticated about fats - polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated (all about hydrogen, by the by as to whether or not a fat is saturated), and of course the newly dreaded and california and new york banned transfats - we may need to get a wee more sophisticated about carbs, too.

So let me start by asking this simple question (good to know the Enemy, eh?): what is a carb?

If you've just mentioned anything that would be recognized as a whole food like spinach, or a food product like whole wheat bread or a Krispy Kream Donut, or a lima bean, you'd only be partially right, and therein lies the Big Problem with the New Fat.

Let's look at why.

A carbohydrate is a molecule: it's a combination of groups of sugars (glucose, sucrose and starch). it's a nutrient. It's not a food. This point is important.

It's very difficult to find a whole food or even a prepared food like pasta that is *only* a carbohydrate. For that, you'd have to leave the world of *whole* foods, and go refined, eg refined sugar. Look at the nutrient breakdown of this refined, processed product, and you have solid carb. Is that natural? Likewise, white flour (that is, refined wheat flour) is pretty close to all carb - it's hard not to find "enriched" versions because of this that mechanically put back nutrients stripped out. Whole wheat (that is less refined; more whole grain) has considerably more protein and even fat. Checking by brand is important if you're interested in a greater nutrient mix.

The point is, you have to do some engineering to reduce a food to a single nutrient, bereft too of any micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) found in whole foods.

Carbs are found in vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes primarily. When they're in food, they're inset with other nutrients (protein and/or fat) and some kind of vitamin/mineral profile.

So when people talk about carbs what do they mean?

First Fallacy: separating veggies as a separate category from grains

Some diet discussions and diet books i've looked at lately have created this implicit separation of vegetables from other foods with carbs in them. Indeed they talk about "vegetables" explicitly and "carbs" explicitly, as if carbs are a food on their own.

It seems what is usually meant in this case is an old and more or less devalued distinction between what are known as "simple" and "complex" carbohydrates. Simple carbs have no bonds to break down to be digested. Complex carbs, built up of the simpler sugar groups into "starch" take more enzymatic action to break down. But so what? we'll come back to that.

Examples of simple carbs are usually those found in fruits and cruciferous veg (like spinach and broccoli). The Spud is a super example of a complex carb holding, starchy food. Grain based foods are also usually on the starchier side.

So these separators of veggies from "carbs" usually means simple/complex.

Now why would anyone want to separate out these types of foods into their carbohydrate groups?

That's a mystery to me as no one is quite explicit about this, suggesting their own analysis is a little fuzzy, but there are a couple of possibilities, and these take us from the world of carbohydrates to the world of insulin.

Maybe you've heard the term "insulin sensitivity"? Being insulin sensitive is a good thing, but explaining the concept is beyond the scope of this piece. Suffice it to say that insulin, a key hormone in our lives, gets triggered when glucose - the simple fuel source, gets released into the blood stream as fuel. Insulin is involved in saying what of that sugar gets shunted for fuel into the muscle (yup, muscles store glycogen - a form of that glucose), and what is considered excess and gets appropriately processed to be stored as fat.

As humans, carbs are important for certain types of energy, and for muscle health, but they are NOT our main source of fuel. As we know, the body's main, most significantly used fuel source is fat.

So here's the thing to get back to that simple vs complex division that ends up as "veggies" discussed on one hand and "carbs" (meaning potatoes an bread) on the other happens - at least this is my hypothesis, and it is two fold:

starchy carbs found in foods like potatoes or pasta are both (a) calorically dense (compared to a bunch of greens or a beet) so they just have a big whopping amount of calories in them (again compared to that salad alternative) and (b) often (not always) trigger a big insulin response. Here's why on part b.

While starchy carbs may require more enzyme action to break down those starches into sugars, honey, this happens fast. And because there's such a high percentage of sugars in that food getting released into the blood stream AT ONCE after digestion, insulin kicks in desperately trying to find a place to put all this fuel.

As you can imagine, if you have a food that is refined so that only carb is left - like that ooo so tempting krispy kream donut - then it's gonna race into the bloodstream all dressed up with no where to go. Too much of this refined non-whole-food (aka crap) and we get into a loss of insulin sensitivity that leads to TypeII diabetes. Again, why is for another article.

So, you might ask, what about veggies and fruits? if they are already in their simple form of sugars, why are they in this separate "non-evil carb" category? Won't they hit the digestive system even faster than the starches which need some time to be broken down?

That is an excellent question. Simple should mean fast. And as we see, once liberated from their complex form, simple IS fast. BUT, those carbs in those whole foods are NOT refined, denuded from their natural context. They're included in carriers that are rife with other components: fiber, protein, fat, micronutrients, all sorts of stuff that hits the digestive system at the same time, slowing down the release of those sugars into the blood stream. That's one.

The other points are that veggies are (a) less carbs aka sugar dense (diff between a veg and a fruit is sugar content, afterall) and (b) veggies are generally simply less calorically dense (fewer calories) than the equivalent serving of grains (whole or otherwise) or legumes.

So, what do we know? Our bodies prefer carbs as the source of *certain* kinds of energy. We don't need a lot of them (130g for an adult male - on average; that's 520 calories). So, we can get these fuel sources from a variety of foods, from spinach to potatoes.

The complex carb foods, like potatoes and pastas may simply have more carbs in them than we need, but that's not the only reason complex carb foods are relegated away from the simple carb "veg" foods, which leads us to the second fallacy about carbs.

Falacy II all "complex" carbs are created equal

Complex carb foods, we may hypothesize, are relegated from the simple carb "veggie" pile in diet discussions "oh i don't mean vegetables, i mean pasta and potatoes" because there is a belief that, because these starchy carbs (a) get absorbed quickly which means stored quickly, either in muscle or fat and that (b) they trigger a Great Big Insulin Response and that means insulin response stops being as effective and again, we come back to fat gain.

The thing is, not all complex carbs trigger a great big insulin response, while some things we wouldn't suspect of doing so, do. How fast blood glucose does rise after a food is eaten Glycemic Index (GI); how big an insulin response this food produces (the big concern) is scored in the Insulin index (II). Here's a site that sorta puts both side by each. And this is where there can be some surprises

To quote John Berardi from an article called Lean Eatin' (Part II):

interestingly, while the glycemic and insulin indices of many foods were similar, some foods caused unpredicted responses...foods like yogurt and milk had relatively low-glycemic indices, but very high insulin indices. White and brown rice, on the other hand, had high-glycemic indices, but low insulin indices. The point here is that if you want to effectively manage body composition, you should choose your carbohydrates based on both the glycemic and insulin indices.

So what we're looking for in carb sources, ideally, is not to cut them out, but to try to manage (a) how much of a limited required fuel source is available at a given time and (b) how big an insulin spike occurs when eating them.

It should start to be pretty clear from these points that veggies sound like a pretty great way to get carbs: they're low calorie, nutrient and micro nutrient rich, so the carbs there will come into the blood stream not in a rush but in a nicer flow, and will have other properties to help manage insulin spiking. All great, especially if you're trying to lose weight. Something that sprouted grain bagel with humus may just be too much for - but maybe not because of any insulin or glucose rush, but just because it's too high cal for you right now. But if you're a skinny bastard, yum yum. They can handle it. Which leads us to fallacy no. 3

Fallacy III: all eaters are created equal when it comes to carbs.

If you're a skinny bastard, and you know who you are, you can eat them complex carbs rich foods and smile and not gain weight. Why? your system happens to burn through this fuel source like it's not even there. Nothing's left to get stored. These buggers practically have to eat to make themselves sick to start gaining weight. Can you imagine? This changes later in life. So be patient: they'll get theirs.

That said, this fact doesn't mean that skinny bastards don't have to think about their nutrition like the rest of us: everyone still needs to eat a range of foods to ensure we get all the good stuff we need from a mix of protein, fats, carbs, minerals and vitamins.

For those of us who can't eat these foods without consequences, this doesn't mean these foods are verboten; just that if we care about our weight, we need to think a little more strategically about eating them. One of the big suggestions from Berardi's Precision Nutrition, and from Bernadot's work has been "nutrient timing" which in part refers to taking on types of food when we can best make use of what they have to offer us.

For folks trying to lose weight, Berardi suggests the only time you might want to take on higher glycemic/insulin index foods is post workout: at this time, especially our muscle's stores of sugars have been depleted and the body is yelling for energy sources to be available for replenishment. Post workout pasta time. Not pig out, but time to replenish. Makes us, according to Dave Barr, way more carb-fuel efficient.

And that brings us to another expression: carb tolerance.

You may not be a skinny bastard, but you might not be a total carbophobe, to coin a phrase, either. You may find that if you're trying to lose weight, say, having that bowl of oatmeal in the AM rather than after a workout, is just fine. For others, fat management is just easier if sticking to starchy carbs only after an intense workout. Indeed for some whose focus *is* fat loss, sticking with carb source just from nutrient rich, less calorie dense sources like veggies, is a good idea. It's what works for them.

Some folks talk about this as learning to eat for your body type: ecto, endo, meso morphic

Not gonna get into thinking about diet by body type right now, but just want to make the point that we need to learn about ourselves and how we individually react to different foods/fuel types under different conditions.

Y'all know i am a fan of precision nutrition: here's another reason why. It's a great way to get at what our base line metabolism is. This is why it talks about habits (here's a pdf overview for free of the whole program): it says take five 5 weeks to follow these habits to 90% compliance for that period - not ramp up to it in five weeks but practice it for five weeks. That's enough time to get a baseline of how an individual practices food intake such that the tweaking can begin - tweaking such as really understanding your own kinds of carb tolerance.

What's interesting is that carb tolerance (insulin sensitivity) can be adjusted based on practice: work out more, do resistance training, cardio and intervals, and you will reshape your insulin sensitivity and your carb sensitivity. That's what Barr describes, and that's what the research shows. So if just looking at a bagel makes you balloon right now, getting right with nutrition, getting an understanding of how we react with different foods, and working out regularly, can make us a much meaner carb burning machine.

Carbs are good. Not eating them will not make us lose weight. Which takes us to the Final Fallacy, no. 4

Carb Fallacy IV: eliminating carbs = losing fat.

If we cut out all carbs from our diet, and do nothing else, we will possibly lose weight. Why? Two reasons:

1. we may at that point simply be in what's known as a caloric deficit.
2. we will lose water (not fat)

In the first case, if we eat fewer calories than we need to maintain our current weight, we'll start to lose weight. Simple thermodynamics on that one. Now, if cutting out carbs, we're still eating sufficiently over what we need for maintenance that even that reduction does not put us into caloric deficit, then weight loss won't happen.

In the second case, carbs are necessary for our skeletal muscle in that they help hold sufficient water in the muscle for the muscle to function. Really - hydrated muscles are critical to be able to perform effectively. we'll come back to this another time. So, take carbs out of the diet, and water leaves the muscle tissue, weight loss, not fat loss occurs. This is why some athletes to "make weight" will take a diuretic for a period before a weigh in.

The only way to lose fat is to burn it for fuel. The only way to get more fat used as fuel is to induce a caloric deficit. That is, either take in less food - eat below maintenance - or increase energy demand by doing some kind of fuel demanding activity like exercise, or do some combination of both calorie reduction and exercise.

Am i saying that a diet of twinkies, if a person ate under their caloric maintenance level would result in weight loss?
YES.
You might end up sick like a dog from not getting sufficient vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, but you'd lose weight.

Indeed a recent survey of weight loss approaches - low fat vs low carb - showed that the differences in any losses of fat between the two approaches was in the noise level, not significant. Bottom line: want to lose weight? eat less than you need for your energy demands. What that "less" is we've looked at elsewhere. Here's the conclusion from that survey:

We conclude that a calorie is a calorie. From a purely thermodynamic point of view, this is clear because the human body or, indeed, any living organism cannot create or destroy energy but can only convert energy from one form to another. In comparing energy balance between dietary treatments, however, it must be remembered that the units of dietary energy are metabolizable energy and not gross energy. This is perhaps unfortunate because metabolizable energy is much more difficult to determine than is gross energy, because the Atwater factors used in calculating metabolizable energy are not exact. As such, our food tables are not perfect, and small errors are associated with their use.

In addition, we concede that the substitution of one macronutrient for another has been shown in some studies to have a statistically significant effect on the expenditure half of the energy balance equation. This has been observed most often for high-protein diets. Evidence indicates, however, that the difference in energy expenditure is small and can potentially account for less than one-third of the differences in weight loss that have been reported between high-protein or low-carbohydrate diets and high-carbohydrate or low-fat diets. As such, a calorie is a calorie. Further research is needed to identify the mechanisms that result in greater weight loss with one diet than with another.

So that's the nifty bit: what *seems* to make some weight loss approaches work better, longer than others, is an interesting question - after all, we're complex organisms, as our different tolerances for carbs show, eh? But bottom line, we lose FAT because we're burning it in caloric deficit, not because one nutrient or the other is more present.

This is not to say that there aren't nutritional reasons to moderate the balance AND TIMING of different kinds of nutrients, but i like PN's habits: eat some protein source and some greens source at every feeding; make sure to get good fats in there a few times a day, too; avoid starchy carbs until after a work out. Michael Pollan in In Defence of Food puts it similarly: "eat food, not too much mostly plants."

BOTTOM LINE: Eat real, whole food; lose weight.

The bottom line that seems to be shown time and time again is that the stuff that induces "western diseases" of obesity, typeII diabetes, various dental diseases, and so on, is highly correlated not with eating real, whole food, but with the amount and kind of crap that is an accepted part of a normal diet: that is refined, processed foods.

IF you're not sure what refined and processed foods are, do a color check. If it's not part of a cooked animal and it's white it's refined. Likewise if it's a completely unnatural colour, like those found in fruit loops, it's refined. If it's really yellow, it's likely dyed and refined.

Adulterated foods are also problematic: higher cals, less value, and that includes things that *look* like real foods - factory farmed meat is a completely different animal in terms of health profile AND TASTE from free range/mixed grains for instance.

Leaving that aside because we're talking predominantly carb sources rather than protein, the point is CARBS of any stripe - simple or complex - are not bad. The best place to get them is from whole foods, whole grains. The best time to eat these different kinds will be a matter of carb tolerance relative to what a good nutrient mix is for you - do you need more protein; do you need more fat?

The interesting thing is that while this sounds complicated, after practicing for awhile, the heuristics get easier: is there lots of natural color on the plate at each eating? Is there an absence of refined/processed foods? Yes and Yes? chances are you're in the right space for healthy eating. If you want to lose weight, try eating a little less at each meal, and/or exercise a little more, too, for two weeks and see what happens. Adjust as needed.

So, don't vilify the poor carbohydrate molecule in your life - we haven't even talked about how essential it is if you're working out - keep it in there. Love your simple and complex carbs. Just think about where in a day they'll work for you. And work for you, they really, truly will.

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