Joint Pain & Injuries - Active Release Technique (Day 8)

I've decided to put off my gym training for now to prevent further shoulder injury. The pain in my shoulder has become quite bothersome and I can't bring my arm above my neck without feeling it. If you've been reading my blog so far, you'll know that I've been devouring the book 4 Hour Body like a fat kid on chocolate cake. In it, the author Timothy Ferriss suggests a treatment called Active Release Technique (ART). He claims that it completely restored motion in his shoulder and took away chronic pain that he had been feeling for years from past injuries.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Active Release Technique, there's a pretty good explanation of what it is and what it does here.

In the past, I've tried everything from deep tissue massage to acupuncture to taking glucosamine and chondroitin, but nothing really seemed to have a pronounced effect. If this technique works any better than the other options, you'll be hearing about it shortly tomorrow afternoon.

After reflecting on this past week, I've learned some valuable lessons. Consistency in training and moderation in diet is the key. Slow and steady wins the race.

I looked up the local ART clinic and scheduled an appointment tomorrow morning at 10:00am. Wish me luck!

Cheat Day! (or weekend?) - Carb Cycling (Day 6)

So this is my first time attempting what's known as carb-cycling. I'm saving my long explanations for now and using links to make things easier, but the short of what carb cycling is (again, for those of you who don't know) is to have certain days of the week where you consume very few carbs, mixed with days when you eat lots of carbs. The result of it is your body's metabolism never slows down, you don't feel like you're starving yourself, and you lose fat/weight in a much healthier and easier fashion. For those of you interested in reading more about it, you can do so here.

Unlike what's described in the link above though, I'll be doing relatively low carbs for 6 days and replenishing my body's glycogen stores once a week every Saturday - my cheat day. Previous users of this method reported gains over the weekend but quickly went back to pre-cheat day weights once the new week came.

This weekend my friend Zen came to visit, and I decided to allow my Friday to coincide with my cheat day when I could eat or drink anything I wanted. This eventually culminated in me getting completely annihilated Friday night.

Absinthe @ 3pm, Friday

As of writing this, it's Saturday evening and I still don't think I've fully recovered. I have no energy and lack my usual sense of well being. In addition to this, in my overzealous desire to work toward my goal I've managed to overtrain; my right shoulder is aggravated from an additional session of crossfit that I managed to throw in between workouts and my left wrist is slightly sprained from badminton.

As a result, I've decided to make changes to my regimen:

With regards to alcohol, no more than two drinks on my cheat days

With regards to working out, scheduled MWF weight training with lighter sessions of cardio.

For now, I need to schedule a trainer to look at my shoulder and wrist. My friend Jeff says that overtraining is worse than not training at all; your body becomes exhausted and more prone to injury which could put you out for weeks. At the moment, I feel like I might be living out his words. I've learned my lesson. Luckily we are only one week into this little experiment. Hopefully things will be better next week!

Why Calorie Counting is Retarded - Fat Loss For the Ladies (Day 4)

Current Weight: 155.6

I notice that some of the most unhealthy dieting and exercise regimens I see in online journals come from the ladies calorie counting. Their daily blogs look something like this:

Ex. 1
Hot Coco: 25
Oatmeal: 160
Garlic Bread: 80
Orange: 65
Jello: 30
Saltines: 24
Pie Crust: 50
Orange: 65
Wrap: 350
Pretzels: 110
Cookie: 150
Starbucks: 100

Total: 1209 BLECH! Definitely cutting it down tomorrow. This is not okay. Apparently something I ate hit me the wrong way.... you should get the idea

Or this:

Ex. 2

Oatmeal: 160
Orange: 60
Coke Zero: 0
2 Crackers: 24
Jello: 15
Twix Bars: 250
Oatmeal Cake: 170
Pretzels: 110
Small Banana: 70
Fruit Bowl: about 80

It's amazing to me that despite how far we've come in fitness science, some people (ladies) are so in the dark about fat loss and nutrition. A large majority of people still think that they want to lose weight, when in actuality what everyone really wants is to lose fat. Ladies, you don't want to look like a a thin blobby surfboard do you? Because if you do, I'll tell you right now, guys aren't into that. You want a thin little waist, toned arms and legs and a perky ass. Because that's what hot girls look like, that's what guys want, and what you're doing with your diet above isn't going to get you there.

On top of this, I hear this mantra too often: "Weight loss is just a matter of burning more calories than you take in. A calorie is a calorie, doesn't matter where it comes from."

If this is the case, a woman eating nothing but 1200 calories of table sugar would look the same as her identical twin eating 1200 calories of a sensible and balanced diet of lean proteins, unprocessed carbohydrates and fresh fruits and vegetables. This just clearly isn't the case. Holding a decent exercise regimen constant between these two, The woman in the first example would probably be starving, have low energy, and would most likely gain weight, while the second would probably exhibit none of these symptoms.

Thus, the problem with calorie counting is that a calorie is not just a calorie and it does matter where it comes from.

With that said, let's take a look at the above diets and explain why they're so bad for you.

First of all, you'll notice that in both these examples there is absolutely zero protein. One of the most important concepts to understand about proper fat loss is that protein is an absolute necessity. The reasons for this are threefold:

1. Consuming protein gives your body vital building blocks to maintain its current muscle mass. Because your muscles consume the majority of your calories by simply being there, you need your muscle mass in order to maintain your current metabolism. If you were to continue consuming carbs and not exercise, your muscles would atrophy thus lowering your metabolism further, causing you to still not lose weight when eating even less; a vicious cycle. If anything, you maintain the same weight but just get flabbier and softer.

2. Protein causes a greater burn when being digested compared to processed carbs. Your metabolism actually increases when digesting protein because the body has to expend energy (read: calories) to break it down. Conversely processed carbs like pie crusts, saltines and cookies cause the body to spend very little energy digesting as they are quickly and easily turned into glucose to be used by the body.

3. Protein keeps you full longer. Psychologically, this is probably the most important point. Do you really want to diet and feel hungry and miserable all day long? Physiologically, because protein takes longer to digest, it has a positive effect on your blood glucose levels and your insulin response. Namely, it keeps them flat. Flat blood sugar and low insulin levels are what keeps your body from gaining fat. More on this later, but back to the diets above...

Secondly, you'll notice that the large majority of the items these people are consuming are all processed and refined carbs. These are the exact types of foods that cause people to be overweight to begin with. Simply eating less of them isn't going to solve the problem. What it is going to do most likely is cause this person to be hungry a lot of the time. This is because as mentioned above, processed carbs are converted into glucose in the bloodstream very quickly causing a spike in your body's blood sugar levels. As a result, your body floods with insulin causing all that sugar to be pulled into your cells very quickly. Shortly thereafter, blood sugar levels plummet and you feel hungry again even though you just ate. This constant spike and plummeting of blood sugar levels is what causes your body to believe it's either in feast or famine mode. Your body responds by conserving more fat. Ultimately, eating like this is an uphill battle toward losing weight and fat. Your body is fighting you every step of the way.

Ladies, if you plan on losing weight, do it in a healthy way. Focus on losing fat instead of just weight in general. Identify a healthy body fat percentage you want to be at (ladies should be anywhere between 20%-25%), calculate what your lean body mass would be at that point, and consume that many grams of protein per day. Fill in the rest of your calories with unprocessed/unrefined carbs, healthy fruits and vegetables, and small amounts of healthy unsaturated fats such as fish oil and olive oil.

For example, if you're 5'4, weigh 160lbs and you're at 35% body fat, you'd have 56lbs of fat and 104lbs of lean body mass. A healthy target weight of 120lbs and 22% body fat would mean 93.6lbs lean muscle mass and 26.4lbs of fat. Consume 93.6 grams of protein (374.4 calories), spread through every meal of your day and fill in the rest of your calorie requirements with vegetables, healthy fats and unrefined carbs.

For simplicity's sake, there's a very decent calculator on About.com that breaks down your daily calorie requirements into how much protein/carbohydrate/fat you should consume along with adjustments depending on your level of physical activity. You'll notice that if you put in the numbers I have above for a 5'4 160lb woman looking to get to 120lbs that the numbers they arrive at coincide with mine. Click here.

For any women out there reading this, I hope this changes your views on what dieting really is.

Cheers!

Weight Training/Cardio Outline (Day 3)

So it seems kind of late for me to be posting about this now, but I only have so much time to dedicate to this a day. As a result, all the topics I've been wanting to cover get pushed back day after day.

Quite a few people have been asking me about how I got the V lines below my abs in my Facebook profile picture. Apparently these lines of definition are pretty popular. I'll be covering that, the routine is actually remarkably simple.

Currently I'm on a 3 day weight training schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I do back and bi's on Monday, chest and tri's on Wednesday, shoulders and legs on Friday. Ab work is every day of weight training. Currently badminton is my only form of cardio, but I'll be discussing other techniques and theories on cardio (and doing less of it while achieving great results).

Weights listed below are what I'm starting at. I'll be gradually adding on weight to improve musculature. It should be fun to see where I'm at by the end of this period.

Monday: Preacher curls optional...

Yates bent rows 3 x 8 reps, 90lbs

Drag curls 3 x 8 reps, 55lbs

Preacher curls 3 x 8 reps 60lbs

Lat pulldowns 3 x 8 reps, 120lbs

Seated rows 3 x 8 reps, 120lbs

Wednesday: pick 2 of the following exercises

Dumbbell bench press 3 x 8 reps, 65lbs

Bench press 3 x 8 reps, 135lbs

Incline dumbbell Flies 3 x 8 reps, 30lbs

Cable Crossovers 3x10 reps, 25lbs each side

Then

Dips 2 x 8 reps

Tricep pushdown 3 x 8 reps, 55lbs

Friday:

Pick one of the following:

Squat 3 x 8 reps, 135lbs

Deadlift 3 x 8 reps, 135lbs

Then:

Hamstring curls 3 x 8 reps (no idea of weight yet)

Dumbbell military press 3 x 8 reps, 40 lbs

Upright Rows 3 x 8 reps, 65lbs

Side Lateral Raises (side or bent depending on anterior, medial, posterior) 3 x 8 reps, 25lbs

Abs (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

Weighted Myotatic Crunch 30 reps, 10lbs

Cat vomit 10 reps, 10 second hold each (go to 1:31 of video)

Note: there's no video of this motion posted online, but it's basically just sucking in your abs as hard as you can for 10 seconds.

Mason twists 50 reps side to side, 10lbs

Roman chair leg lift: 3 x 10 reps

Note to the guys: this is the one movement that gets you that V! So easy!

Cardio:

I play badminton for 2 hours a day about 2-3 times a week. Of course, I know not many people play badminton, so I'd like to take this opportunity to give my thoughts on cardio:

First of all, I hate cardio with a passion. I can't stand running, I can't stand the treadmill, and frankly I think the majority of cardio that people do is a waste of time. Why you might ask? Because the amount of calories that you burn during the period of time you're running like a hamster on a treadmill is more or less negated with something like a twinkie. The problem with low intensity cardio exercise is that it's too much effort for too little pay off. Your body returns to its original basal metabolic rate shortly after stopping.

The trick to rapid fat loss is to raise your overall basal metabolic rate (BMR) for the other 23 hours of the day you're sitting around doing nothing. Why waste an hour on a treadmill to burn a few hundred calories when you can increase your resting metabolism to burn those few hundred calories doing NOTHING? Weight training does exactly this. Studies have shown that your body's metabolic rate is permanently increased for the next 48-72 hours after a weight training session. I've found personally that my body fat seems to strip off when doing nothing but weight training four times a week. Of course, any cardio or sports activities you do on top of this is just icing on the cake. For reference and more details on the concept of manipulating BMR, click here.

With that said, if you're in disagreement and absolutely must do cardio to feel right, or if you don't really want to do weight training, the bread and butter method for fat loss these days is (with an overwhelming consensus from fitness gurus) high intensity interval training (or HIIT for short). What is HIIT? It's simply running, cycling or swimming or doing whatever cardio exercise you're doing the fastest you can do it for a short period of time. So if you were running on a track, you'd sprint for a short distance (maybe the length of the it) and then walk for 30 seconds to recover and do it over again for about 7 reps. I can personally tell you this is absolutely exhausting, but the benefits are that 1. you have an afterburn effect similar to weight training where your metabolism remains elevated several hours afterwards, and 2. you spend a total of 15 minutes doing cardio for a much more efficient routine than traditional means.

For greatest results, the best time to do HIIT training is right when you wake up before breakfast. The theory is that your body is in a fasted state and the energy you burn comes straight from your body fat. The reality is more complicated than this, as certain fat burning hormones are most active during this period of time while insulin (a main fat-storing hormone) is at an epic low.

As you go on reading this blog, you'll probably realize as I have that fat loss at its core isn't really anything about working out or eating, but about natural methods of hormone manipulation.

HIIT on a track:

Sprint as hard as you can for the straight distance of the track

Walk the curved portion to recover.

Repeat for 7 sets total. Time: 15 minutes if you're diligent.

Increase 1 set each session until you can hit 10 sets

HIIT swimming:

Sprint freestyle 2x the distance of the pool (25m)

Rest 30 seconds - 1minute

Repeat for 7 sets total.

Increase 1 set each session until you can hit 10 sets for 500 meters

HIIT cycling

Sprint on the cycle as hard as you can for 30 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Repeat for 7 sets total.

Increase 1 set each session until you can hit 10 sets

On Dairy...

Before beginning, it's important to note that I am not an expert of any sort on working out and dieting. All I've had is some success with changing my body to the way I want it to look through relatively efficient means.

So take my advice with a grain of salt if you're asking! What works for me may not necessarily work (or even be good) for you.

With that said, my friend Tina just asked me about whether she should be stop taking dairy (drinking milk etc.) to accelerate fat loss. In a nutshell, I told her she should, pretty much citing the 4 hour body's reasonings for why dairy is bad.

However, this is one issue in the fitness and dieting world that has strongly opposing views. Other sources say that diary is an absolute necessity, and the general consensus is that calcium intake is a powerful fat loss accelerator.

Without further ado, I bring to you these opposing views.

Why dairy is bad, according to Timothy Ferriss in 4 Hour Body:

"It’s true that milk has a low glycemic index (GI) and a low glycemic load (GL). For the latter,

whole milk clocks in at an attractive 27. Unfortunately, dairy products paradoxically have a

high insulinemic response on the insulinemic index (II or InIn) scale. Researchers from Lund

University in Sweden have examined this surprising finding:

Despite low glycemic indexes of 15–30, all of the milk products produced high

insulinemic indexes of 90–98, which were not significantly different from the insulinemic index of the reference bread [generally white bread].… Conclusions: Milk products appear

insulinotropic as judged from 3-fold to 6-fold higher insulinemic indexes than expected

from the corresponding glycemic indexes.

Removing even a little dairy can dramatically accelerate fat-loss, as Murph noticed:

OK, it’s been a week since taking Tim’s advice and cutting the dairy. I’m down 6 more

pounds. And what’s unbelievable to me is that I wasn’t even consuming that much

beforehand. Maybe a handful of cheese on my breakfast eggs, and a glass of milk per day."

On the flip side:

"In detail, researchers found that supplemental calcium (800mg/day) or high dietary intake of calcium (1200mg/day) promoted a greater fat loss (38-64%) compared to subjects on a low calcium diet (500mg/day)

Furthermore, it's been seen that dairy sources of calcium promotes 50-100% more fat loss than supplemental calcium. Researchers hyopothesize that diary calcium is more effective for fat loss than supplemental calcium most likely for the bio-active ingredients contained in dairy products such as: whey protein peptides, conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and branched chain amino acids (BCAA)" - Francesco Casillo from bodybuilding.com

It should be noted that in addition to this, calcium is a crucial nutrient for women when considering bone loss and osteoporosis in later years.

So there you have it, two opposing views on dairy. If you ask for my opinion, I think that calcium supplementation is an important aspect of fat loss and a crucial nutrient for women of all ages. However, in keeping with Ferriss's reasoning, I'd probably take Caltrate chews for calcium and just lose the dairy for the women out there.

When deciding whether to add or eliminate dairy from your diet to accelerate fat loss, do so at your own peril!

Diet Outline (Day 2)

Current weight: 157lbs

"As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So I've been pretty busy with errands and whatnot lately and I haven't really had time to sit down and think of exactly what to eat and how to work out, but I'll give you guys (all one or two of you reading this) a brief summary of what I'll be eating/not eating this post.

Diet:

I've been reading 4 hour body fanatically the last few weeks and the author, Tim Ferriss, has some pretty interesting ideas on dieting to lose fat. His plan is broken down into 5 simple rules.

Rule 1: Avoid "white" carbohydrates (or anything that can be white).

I like this rule and it's one that I generally follow because white usually means that the food has been processed and refined which translates into something that is high glycemic index (more on this later for those of you who don't know what this is)

Rule 2: Eat the same few meals over and over again.

Tim suggests doing so for convenience. You eat the same things and you get into a routine of making the same things over and over again. Variety causes headache in preparation and cleanup. I like this idea as well.

Rule 3: Don't drink calories.

I was playing badminton today and nonchalantly bought a giant gatorade and consumed half of it in one gulp. Then after realizing what I did, I look onto the side of the bottle only to find that I've just consumed nearly 30 grams of sugar. Epic misstep on my behalf.

Anyway, I usually follow this rule religiously. Artificial drinks are notoriously deceptive in the amount of sugar they contain. Processed and refined sugar in our diet is probably the number one culprit of obesity in America. Think drinking diet is any better? Studies have shown that the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks produce the same insulin response in your body that sugar does. Translation: 1. Your body goes into conserve fat mode due to this. 2. You get hungry from drinking diet and end up eating more anyway. Lose-lose. More on insulin response and the glycemic index in a future post for those of you wanting to understand more about this. As for now, I've sort of gone onto a tangent, but in short, I don't drink sweet artificial shit and stick to tea, coffee or water.

Rule 4: Don't eat fruit.

I think this is a little far fetched. I can understand the logic behind this rule; Tim wants to completely limit the amount of fructose/sugar consumed. Fruit has sugar. Fruit is bad. But fruit such as raspberries and blackberries contain vitamins and antioxidants while providing some much needed fiber for digestion. Grapefruit and cherries have probably have some of the lowest glycemic index values of almost anything we eat. In essence, eating certain fruits don't cause nearly the same insulin spikes you see from sugary drinks and refined carbs. I think the benefits they provide far outweigh the detriments.

Rule 5: Take one day off per week and go nuts.

This is what's commonly known amongst the fitness community as carb-cycling. Without going into the science behind why this is beneficial, a long story short, eating the same thing everyday just sucks balls from a psychological standpoint. But more importantly, your body actually starts reacting to your new diet by slowing metabolism; an uphill battle for someone who wants to lose body fat. Loading up on carbs one day a week effectively resets the process and jumpstarts your body's metabolism again. I've put this in laymens terms as much possible, but for those of you wanting to understand the science behind this, google carb-cycling.

All in all some effective rules to abide by, but I'll probably be doing something slightly modified but following the same principles.

1. Zero refined carbs. My staples for carbs are: unsweetened oatmeal, whole grain bread and brown rice.

2. Loading up on carbs in the morning and tapering them off toward the evening (No carbs after 8pm) for a total of 1g carb per lb of body weight per day.

This method is also called "frontloading." The reason for this is because studies have shown that carbs you eat in the morning are used toward energy throughout the day. Carbs eaten in the evening tend to be stored as fat as the body's metabolism wanes throughout the day. Hence the old saying that you should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a peasant (or something to that effect) is true; at least for staying lean and healthy.

3. Consuming protein with every meal for a total of approximately 1g per lb of body weight per day. Eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, nuts, peanut/almond butter, lean beef and pork.

4. Four to five small meals a day with breakfast eaten within an hour of waking.

5. As much vegetables such as broccoli/spinach/peppers/cauliflower as you like for additional vitamins/antioxidants/fiber.

6. Zero regard to calorie counting (more on this for a future post), moderate fat consumption (also for another post)

That's going to be my diet in a nutshell for the next three months! Workout routine and other goodies to come.

Edit: One last important thing to add: 7. Drink LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER!

Studies have shown that drinking 17 oz. of water can increase your body's metabolism by as much as 30%. The increased metabolism was measurable in just as little as 10 minutes after fluid intake and the peak of the body's thermogenic response to fluid intake was 30-40 minutes after the fluid intake! Stay hydrated my friends.

Body Analysis (Day 1)

"I'd lend you some trunks, but I don't have any in fat-fuck size." -Viet Pham

Height: 5'8

Weight: 161.7

Neck: 15.5"

Shoulders: 48"

Chest" 39"

Stomach: 35"

Waist: 33"

Hips: 37"

Left Bicep: 14.25"

Right Bicep: 14"

Left Forearm: 11.25"

Right Forearm: 10.9"

Left Thigh: 20.5"

Right Thigh: 20.5"

Left Calf: 14"

Right Calf: 14.5"

Body Fat %: 21.7%

Yes, it's true ladies and gentlemen. I am officially fat-fuck status as of today. The good news is I DEFINITELY chose the right goal. Thank goodness for scratching the "add 15 lbs" regimen. I probably would have died from blindness from diabetes or a massive coronary.

This is quite a stark contrast to the pictures I took last year when I was consistently working out and doing cardio. I guess it just goes to show that staying in shape is truly a by product of an ongoing lifestyle and not just something that happens by occasionally eating right and going to the gym.

Some other interesting differences from measurements I had last year:

-Shoulders, chest and neck have all shrunk an inch

-Waist/stomach gained nearly 2 inches. Massive alcohol intake and a newfound affinity for sweet pastries for the win.

-Imbalances between left and right appendages that used to be symmetrical. Most likely attributed to badminton and just not working out.

Surprisingly, the Bodpod operator said that I wasn't in too bad of a shape. He said 18% was a healthy percentage to be at and that I should be able to reach that goal within three months. He obviously has no idea what I'm trying to do.

I have not yet determined a detailed diet and workout regimen yet. A general outline of these will be posted tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more exciting tales!

Prologue

Hello out there! Welcome to my humble abode... Sort of.

My name is Arthur and I'm a twenty-something Asian American working professional living in San Jose, CA.

This blog marks the beginning of an experiment that I'll be conducting over the next three months: to cut my body fat levels down to single digits; preferably as low as 6% by April 24, 2011. I'll use this space to talk about everything from my diet, to my workouts, to my random thoughts on contemporary fitness science and routines. The journey will most likely be arduous, but hopefully along the way it will manage to be insightful, informative, educational and maybe, if I succeed, somewhat inspiring to readers out there looking to lose weight or get in shape. (and don't want to do P90x!)

1999: This is me, senior year in high school playing badminton. I was 5'6 and 115lbs.

Body recomposition isn't something that's entirely new to me. After all, being teased for being this skinny was a powerful motivator to research ways to put on weight.

Today I'm a little over 160lbs. Most of it's muscle. But as anyone can tell you, along with gaining weight comes gaining a bit of fat. I've been pretty successful with building muscle over the years, but this year I'd like to try something a little different.

Tomorrow morning I visit a Bodpod testing center where I will receive official data regarding my current body fat percentage. Along with it I'll be posting pictures of what I look like as well as my current measurements.

Have fun reading!