How to workout with Eat Stop Eat

It's probably not much of a surprise that I like muscle. If you look through my previous posts I think it is pretty obvious that I am very much a workout junkie.

I like to do me best to be efficient about working out, and not to simply go the gym for the sake of being in the gym, but I do enjoy it.

And, if I thought fasting was going to cause me to lose muscle - even just a little bit - I wouldn't do it. Not for all the fat loss in the world.

To me, weight training is like an insurance policy. With weight training I beleive with 100% certainty that I am losing body fat, but not losing muscle.

I've tried many different workout styles and routines throughout my training days. Some I liked, some I didn't.

The key to working out is fairly simple - have a good plan of attack and execute that plan to the best of your abilities. It does not matter if you are following a full body training routine, a body part split program or some variation of the two...as long as you have a plan that allows you to progress, and you follow that plan, you will get results.

To get the very best results out of your workout your exercises need to be challenging. And, while I am not an exercise physiologist by any means, I do have my favorite exercises, the ones that I enjoy doing, and the ones that challenge me the most.

So from time to time, I'm going to share some of my all time favorite exercises on this blog. Starting with the simple Chin-up made challenging with a big rubber band.

It's an exercise that takes a minimum amount of equipment, and that can easily be done in a commercial gym or in a home gym.

BP

How to workout with Eat Stop Eat

Fasting, Exercise and Blood Sugar

Here are two quick "Did you knows?" concerning fasting, exercise and blood sugar.

Did you know that it takes 30 to 60 minutes of running at 75% of your V02 max (for conditioned runners) to get your blood insulin levels down to the same level found in people who have been fasting for 23 hours? (Dohm LG 1986)

Did you know that when scientists studied people who exercised after fasting for 23 hours, their blood sugar levels were actually found to be slightly higher then when the same people exercised after a small meal? (Coyle EF 1985; Dohm LG 1986)

What this means to you- running at 75% of your VO2 max for as long as 70 minutes in well trained runners who had been fasting for 23 hours did not cause hypolgycemia (low blood sugar) So if you like exercising while you are fasted, this research suggests you don't have to worry about hypoglycemia (as long as your exercise intensity isn't way above these levels).

And it takes between 30 and 60 minutes of running at a VO2 of 75% to get the same insulin lowering effect as simply sitting around the house after fasting for 18-24 hours.

Two things to think about the next time you are fasting.

BP

How to Workout On Eat Stop Eat

There are many personalities in the fitness industry who are promoting the combination of 'fat burning workouts' with 'muscle building' nutrition.

When it comes to improving the way your body looks, I think this a completely backwards approach. Not only do I think it is backwards, but I believe it is highly ineffective.

Here's why:

It is very difficult to lose weight with exercise alone. It doesn't seem to matter if you using long distance running, interval training, high-intensity weight training or any combination of the three.

Despite what people tell you when they are pushing their "ultra fat burning workouts", the simple fact is exercise alone is a very poor stimulus for weight loss. Even if the workouts are metabolically demanding, the effect they have on calorie burning is actually pretty small.

Even the calorie burning that happens after hard workouts is only an extra 8-10 extra Calories per hour, and typically does not last the 24-36 hours that some authors say it does. The research on the benefit of this type of after-exercise metabolism boost is inconclusive at best.

There is also very little proof that any sort of eating style can actually build muscle. Again, I know lots of companies and people who promote certain methods of eating to gain massive amounts of muscle mass, but this just isn't backed by science.

I've been in full research mode now for the last 6 months working on my new book "How much protein?" and let me tell you, I am very disappointed with the lack of evidence that is available for any muscle building diet advice - This even includes ideas as simple as "eat an extra 500 Calories a day to gain muscle". Diet seems to have very little to do with muscle building.

Now, when you put these two concepts together you are in a real messy situation.

You are eating to gain muscle...eating multiple times a day, high protein, a little more calories than 'maintenance' and you are working out to burn fat, doing fancy weight training circuits, combined with cardio intervals, and lots and lots of ab exercises.

Since neither approach is effective, you end up spending a lot of time in the gym, and even more time planning your nutrition and worrying about macro-nutrient ratios and when to take your supplements. despite all of this hard work you still end up seeing very little results.

A much better approach would be to eat for weight loss, and workout to build or maintain muscle.

Research does support the rather simple concept that eating less will cause you lose weight. And that muscle building workouts will preserve muscle mass, even when on very extreme diets, thus ensuring that the weight you lose is from body fat.

This is why Eat Stop Eat involves a combination of fasting and resistance training. It is the combination of the two that leads to optimal fat loss with the least amount of physical or mental work.

So simply, the most ideal way to improve the way your body looks is to-

Eat for weight loss and exercise to build muscle.

It sounds ridiculously simple, but in reality it is very difficult to do. We are constantly bombarded with the latest and greatest new way to burn fat in the gym and it is very easy to get roped into this way of thinking.

The best advice I can give you if you are looking to change the way your body looks is: Keep your workouts simple and geared towards building muscle. Let your diet take care of your fat loss.

To accomplish this you have to follow a couple simple rules:

• Switch from high reps to lower reps (if you have been doing 15-20 rep exercises try increasing the weight and moving to sets of 5-8 reps)
• Remove most isolation exercises from your workout and use total-body multi-muscle movements.
• Get rid of crunches and sit-ups from your workout and spend that time on larger multi-muscle movements.
• Change your workouts frequently
  

And for your diet:

• Find the easiest possible method that allows you to eat less than it takes to maintain your current body weight, and use that method. (I know there are many other diet tips for improving your health, but for weight loss, I feel this is the only one that is truly important)
  

If you are someone who is stuck in the rut of spending hours in the gym every day and trying to eat in a way that supposedly maintains or builds muscle, try switching your approach and see what kind of an amazing difference it can make.

BP

PS- Once you have conquered the mindset of eating for weight loss and exercising for muscle building then adding in additional exercise like intervals or metabolically demanding body weight exercises may speed up the fat burning process, but only if you have the first two steps set into motion.

Why I like the Smith Machine

I know for most of us this last weekend was probably one that involved a fair bit of food...especially chocolate.

For this reason I know you probably don't want to read about anything to do with food or especially fasting right about now.

No problems.

I spent the Easter weekend helping my friend John Barban work on a new project. We took a break during a video shoot, and I decided to do my first ever video-blog entry.

Simple story. While we were shooting, I noticed a smith machine. This reminded me of how everyone always "rips" on the smith machine for being a totally useless piece of gym equipment.

I've always found this funny, because next to the squat rack and a bench, this is probably the one piece of equipment I use most often.

BP

Learn more about exercising while fasting

Fasting and Exercise

I've had a number of people ask me about the effects that fasting and exercise have on blood sugar.



In clinical research there generally isn't a concern that exercising while fasting will cause an ill effects to a persons blood sugar. The body is remarkably good at regulating blood sugar levels, even in the face of intense exercise.



In fact, most of the research on weight training and protein synthesis is conducted on people who have been fasted for anywhere between 12 and 16 hours. And, we know that there are professional athletes who play full NFL games in the fasted state.



However, as I have stated before, there is a difference between research and the real world. Most importantly, in research the people who participate as the subjects are always screened to make sure they are healthy, and that they do not have any underlying medical conditions that may effect the results of the study.



So, I figured this would be another great time to experiment on myself, using my dreaded glucometer.



After I was fasted for 22 hours, went to my Krav Maga class and took part in an hour of practicing leg kicks, body kicks and kicking and striking combinations. It was a hard class and I definitely sacrificed the health of my shins in the name of research!



Here are the results.



I started the class with a blood sugar of 4.7 mmol/L, pretty typical for me during fasting.



After an intense 15 minute warm-up of sprints, sprawls and various body weight exercises I retested by blood sugar and had a reading of 3.9 mmol/L (This is the lower end of normal, however I felt fine).



After the warm up we went right into shins kicks and defences with lots of moving around and striking, I was definitely sweating, and working hard, I took a quick break and tested my blood sugar which was at 5.6 mmol/L (This score is about the same as I would see after a meal)



We followed up with more pad work, throwing in some body kicks and more combinations and making sure our footwork was good, right at the end of the class I measured my blood sugar again and it was at 5.3 mmol/L (looks like I'm already returning to normal)



15 minutes after class my blood sugar was back down to 4.2 mmol/L. thirty minutes later it was 4.7 mmol/L and then right before my fast ended at 2 pm my blood sugar was 4.4 mmol/L. (Right back to where I should be. Time to eat.)

Just another example of the bodies ability to regulate blood sugar, even while fasted and exercising intensely.

BP

Fasting and Athletic Performance

Last night I decided to take a little break from working and watch some television. I flipped to the sports highlight channel and was able to watch the highlights from a couple of this weekend's football games.


Boy was I glad I did!


The announcers were discussing college football and in particular the Washington State Cougars. Apparently, one of their players on the Cougars fasts for religious purposes, and during this particular game, he was right in the middle of a fairly lengthy month of fasting (He does not eat or drink during the daylight hours).

Now this player wasn't fasting for weight loss, and his one day fasts are not a full 24 hours, like the fasts I use for Eat Stop Eat, however they are 15 hours, and they are ever day for a month, and they include no liquids at all, so they are definitely very intense! So this athlete was able to play a very high level sport that involves very explosive and intense periods of activity, that can go on for hours, without any food or drink!

Even more interesting is that his older brother plays in the NFL, so he would be fasting during NFL games - talk about intense.

I often weight train and play sports during my fasts, however after hearing about these two brothers I have decided to do something a little more intense during today's fast.

I have begged and pleaded with Craig Ballantyne from turbulencetraining.com to give me an advanced copy of his new "500 workout".

I'm going to do the workout at some point today...hopefully around 1 pm, which would put me about 22 hours into a fast.

I promised Craig I wouldn't give away the exact details about his workout, however I will post about how hard it was and my experiences doing this sort of extreme exercise while fasted.

BP

Learn more about the benefits of using one day fasts for weight loss