http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
We all know how important it is to drink plenty of water each day, but sometimes that’s a whole lot easier said than done. Plain water, more often than not, just doesn’t have the same appeal as all the other attractive beverages (read: coffee, tea, soda, wine).
So we created five flavored waters, each with a pair of herb and fruit, and no other sugar at all. That’s all it takes to turn water into the most alluring beverage on tap.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I’m always interested in exploring those time-tested bits of advice, those old wives’ tales, that folk wisdom handed down generation over generation because they’re often right, or at least contain a kernel of truth. And if a piece of conventional folk wisdom turns out to be wrong or misguided, understanding why it endured for so many years is a fun exercise and usually reveals other messages and truths. Today, I’m looking at the importance (or lack thereof) of breakfast. For years, you’ve heard how important breakfast is. Your grandma says it. Your doctor probably scolds you if you’re not eating it. We all grow up having this “fact”—breakfast is the most important meal of the day—drilled into our subconsciouses. Even the people who just don’t feel hungry in the morning feel guilty about it and compelled to stuff something into their craws.
Before I begin, I’m a little biased. I follow a compressed eating window, from noon/1 to about 6 or 7 at night. On a typical day, I’ll wake up and grab a mug of coffee with a splash of heavy cream and a teaspoon of sugar. And that’s it until lunch, my biggest meal of the day. Since I’m such an effective fat burner, this schedule clearly works for me. I experience even-keeled energy on a consistent basis. My productivity is high, I’m happy with my physical performance and ability to recover, and I don’t stress over food because I’m just not hungry. It makes things easier overall. Plus, though solid research in humans is scant on this, I stick to a compressed eating window to promote autophagy (cellular maintenance) and hedge against aging and neurodegeneration (if those things ever come!). Based on what I’ve heard from thousands of readers, I’m not alone on this. But a single anecdote, or a collection of thousands, doesn’t prove much. We need to look deeper.
Well, what do the breakfast proponents actually claim? Let’s examine some of the claims and see what the evidence says.
The epidemiology of breakfast skipping certainly seems to suggest a connection between skipping breakfast and obesity:
But these are observational studies, and observational studies cannot establish causality.
So what’s going on here? A few things.
Unhealthy user bias: As breakfast skipping is widely considered to be unhealthy, breakfast skippers may be unhealthy in other areas. They eat more and exercise less, and they’re more likely to drink more alcohol and smoke more cigarettes. Iranian children, for example, who skip breakfast are heavier with larger waists than non-skippers, but they also eat more fast food, fruit juice, salty snacks, and sugary soda than their breakfast-eating counterparts, who favor fruits, vegetables, and milk. Unless you can establish that skipping breakfast causes these lifestyle differences, you can’t say that skipping breakfast plays a causal role.
Dieter bias: Breakfast skippers are likely to be actively dieting, and active dieters usually only diet because they have weight to lose.
The a priori effect: When you presume “breakfast is important” to be true, all your research and results must flow from that presumption.
And a few years ago, a group of researchers took a close look at the evidence other researchers were using to prove the “casual link” between obesity and breakfast skipping. They weren’t very impressed, finding that:
Instead of observational studies, there are a couple intervention studies (where causality can be examined) worth examining.
In a study from the late 1990s, overweight women were randomized to either eat large breakfasts (with smaller dinners) or large dinners (with smaller breakfasts). Those in the large breakfast group lost the most weight, but they also lost the most lean mass. The large dinner group, who didn’t skip breakfast but ate a meager one, lost the most fat mass and preserved the most lean mass. Like I always ask, what kind of weight are you trying to lose—fat or muscle?
In 2014, researchers randomly divided a group of dieting adults into two groups. One group was told to eat breakfast, the other was told to skip it. After 16 weeks, weight loss was basically identical across both groups. Neither skipping breakfast nor eating it had any discernible or unique effect on weight loss.
Other studies have indicated that skipping breakfast may actually reduce the overall amount of calories a person eats throughout the day. A spontaneous reduction in calories eaten is generally a path to weight loss.
“Energy” is difficult to measure objectively. There’s no blood test for “chi” or “life force,” so we have to rely on subjective reports of things like “alertness” and extrapolate from related objective markers. Energy expenditure is a decent marker for how much energy you have. If you’re burning more energy, your body obviously has “enough” to spare. Another is blood glucose control. If your blood sugar takes a dive, that typically manifests as hunger and sleepiness.
“Breakfast” doesn’t tell us much. Some breakfasts will give you better energy than other types of breakfast. A higher protein, lower carb breakfast tends to increase energy expenditure and improve “postprandial wellness” (basically, how do you feel about life after eating this breakfast?). If you throw in some fat with the protein, you can even improve a type 2 diabetic’s glucose tolerance throughout the day, which corresponds to steadier energy levels.
Meanwhile, high-carb breakfasts do the opposite: they make people hungrier sooner, cause greater elevations in insulin and a subsequent drop in blood sugar at 3 to 4 hours after breakfast. The reduced satiety, heightened insulin spikes, and low blood sugar combine to make people “hangry,” sleepy, and susceptible to break room donuts to take the edge off.
It’s true that some studies find connections between skipping breakfast and low subjective alertness or cognitive or physical performance. But these studies are either observational, conducted using standard sugar-burning subjects (as opposed to fat-adapted subjects), or concern children and adolescents (a more energy-intensive subset of humanity for whom breakfast skipping is often nonconsensual, unnecessary, and counterproductive). And the ones that do find a positive relationship between teens, breakfast, and subsequent cognitive function find the greatest benefit from low-GI (read: low-carb, higher fat and protein) breakfasts.
If skipping the occasional breakfast is enough to send you into starvation mode, surely all-out fasting for 72 hours will do the trick. Right? Except when healthy humans are told to fast for three days and their biomarkers are monitored, we find that the resting metabolic rate only drops by 8%. 8% is 8%, sure, but that’s a full 72 hours without food. Skipping breakfast doesn’t even compare.
It does seem to make people overeat at lunch, but not enough to make up for the skipped breakfast. In one study of free-living adults, skipping breakfast led to earlier and bigger lunches. Despite the increased hunger and larger lunches, breakfast skippers still ate fewer calories per day than the breakfast eaters. This is consistent with earlier studies showing that breakfast skipping does not lead to compensatory food intake at lunch and dinner, and in fact may reduce calorie balance by over 400 per day. You might feel hungry enough to eat twice as much, but at the end of the day you end up in an energy deficit.
Not exactly.
If you’re eating a higher or moderate carb diet, breakfast may be the best time to get your carbs. Insulin sensitivity follows a circadian rhythm. Muscle insulin sensitivity is highest in the morning and lowest at night—meaning your muscles are primed to accept and store glucose as glycogen with minimal insulin input—so breakfast is a good time to eat some carbohydrates. Skipping breakfast and then eating a high-carb lunch exacerbates the insulin and blood sugar spike you’d normally get. Eating a carb-rich breakfast “preps” your body for the carb load at lunch.
Side note: The circadian sensitivity of carb tolerance can be overcome with training and physical activity, since exercise restores insulin sensitivity independent of circadian phase. So if you’re going to carb-up during a phase of circadian insulin resistance, make sure to train.
If you compete or train really hard in the morning, a small breakfast could be a good idea. On Sundays, when I play my big Ultimate Frisbee game, I’ll have a small breakfast with my coffee—usually a couple scoops of Primal Fuel mixed in water.
If you’re a child or adolescent, you should probably eat breakfast. You’re growing. And the observational studies finding links between breakfast skipping and overweight tend to focus on kids and teens. Just to be safe, eat something.
If you’re a type 2 diabetic eating a high-carb diet, you should eat breakfast (preferably egg-based). A recent study in diabetics found that skipping breakfast drastically increased the glucose spikes that occurred after lunch and dinner. However, lunch and dinner were high-carb and low-fat (20% fat, 54% carb, 26% protein, 700 calories each), which is a terrible combination for type 2 diabetics.
Side note: This presupposes the type 2 diabetic in question insists on eating a high-carb diet. When you give them healthier meals lower in carbs—salmon, nuts, leafy greens, olives, garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a little bread—diabetics can actually skip breakfast and get more favorable glucose numbers at lunch. If you’re a Primal type 2 diabetic eating low-carb, high-fat meals, your meals won’t provoke those kinds of glucose spikes—breakfast or no breakfast.
If you’re a woman, you might do better with breakfast. In general, women function more poorly skipping meals. I’ve covered this before; skipping breakfast just doesn’t seem to work as well for women. That said, a slightly later breakfast—say, at 10 AM instead of 8 AM—may be a good compromise for women who want to try breakfast skipping.
All that said, there is one huge confounding variable the “breakfast is awesome” controlled trials never account for: meal timing entrainment. Almost everyone eats breakfast. The “normals,” at least. So the average study participant is a habitual breakfast eater whose body expects and likely functions best (at least for now) with regular breakfast intake. You get a group of them together, “starve” them, and you’ll see awful results. Huge insulin spikes, glucose crashes, fatigue, general malaise. It’s like fast tracking the low-carb flu, and it’s going to skew your results. People habituate to the eating schedules they follow. If you’re a natural breakfast skipper, skipping breakfast isn’t going to have the same effect on you.
In a recent study, the authors actually tested this, separating overweight women into habitual breakfast skippers and habitual breakfast eaters and then having them either skip breakfast or eat breakfast.
Breakfast eaters who skipped breakfast experienced way more hunger at lunch. They had worse blood lipids and their insulin skyrocketed. Breakfast skippers who skipped breakfast experienced none of these deleterious effects.
Breakfast eaters who ate breakfast were more satiated at lunch. They had better blood lipids and fairly normal insulin levels. Breakfast skippers who ate breakfast were just as hungry at lunch as normal; the extra meal couldn’t abate their regular lunch-time appetite.
As long as they stuck to their normal eating habits, they had normal responses.
What’s the big takeaway here?
If you’re the type who “never feels like breakfast,” keep skipping it. If it’s easy, don’t eat it. If you’re not hungry, don’t force yourself.
If you’re the type who wakes up ravenous, eat! Don’t skip it just because you read a study somewhere.
What do you think, folks? How do you respond to skipping breakfast?
Thanks for reading. Take care and be good.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Do you miss the days spent peering into your thriving ant farm, and feel nostalgic for simpler times? Have you ever dreamed of owning a farm and raising livestock, but find that you lack the land (not to mention the time) to do it? Well, you’re in luck. It’s time you discovered the distinct joy that is mealworm farming.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Both fried rice and frittatas are known as perfect dishes for cleaning out the refrigerator. Perhaps it’s because both cold rice and eggs act as a blank slate for whatever you wish to throw at them. In addition to being versatile, fried rice and frittatas are fairly simple to make — coming together quickly using whatever vegetables, meats, cheeses, or sauces you have on hand. This recipes combines the two dishes and adds in kimchi and bacon for maximum flavor with minimal effort.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Not everyone has the DIY skills (or energy or time) to paint elaborate patterns. Thankfully there’s a paint pattern trending, and it’s easy to do, can be done in any color, and helps both beautify and conceal.
From Apartment Therapy → Use This Easy-to-Do Painted Pattern Trend to Beautify or Conceal
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Filled with plenty of cheese and pan-fried in butter (or mayo!), grilled cheese sandwiches are notoriously decadent. If you want to cut through the richness with something a little spicy and a little funky, you’re going to love this recipe for a kimchi grilled cheese — or grilled kimcheese, if you will.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
• $5
• Hello!Lucky
When was the last time you sent a letter or thank you note just because? It’s been a while for us as well. That’s why we’re using National Letter Writing Month to pop a couple cards in the mail, and of course we opted for ones that are food-themed.
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/
The single-leg deadlift (SLDL) is about a whole lot more than building a strong, tight booty (although I don’t mind that side effect at all!)
It’s about improving your overall body function, strength, and performance. It improves balance, foot strength, ankle mobility, knee stability, hamstring flexibility, hip hinge ability, posture, shoulder stability, grip strength, as well as strength in the hamstrings and quadriceps. And, of course, glute strength and definition.
So, while as you might expect, the SLDL will increase your strength for your squat and deadlifts, it will also impact your performance on many other strength moves. For example, at StrongFirst, we use the SLDL as a tool to increase balance and strength for pistol squats as well as as the lunge pattern for the Turkish get-up. Few other exercises bring improvement across such a varied range as quickly and effectively as the SLDL.
Plus, there are many progressions and regressions for the SLDL, making this exercise appropriate for all strength and fitness levels—as well as useful for those who want to wave the loads in their training week. Add slow bodyweight reps, weighted reps, and holds at your sticking points into your weekly training program. (You can perform this movement at a fairly high volume without over-working the knees.)
Unfortunately, apart from being widely underutilized, the SLDL is also often performed incorrectly, putting exercisers on the fast-track to injury.
Before adding weight, first use only your bodyweight to pattern the proper movement slowly. Practice hinging at the hip while maintaining proper alignment and tension, before adding weights.
By gripping the floor with your toes you will feel more rooted to the ground, which will improve your balance and strengthen your feet. As you grip and create a more stable base, this allows you to focus on the tracking of your hip, knee, and toe as you descend into the hip hinge.
It will also help to increase your proprioception, that is, your ability to sense the position and movement of your body parts in the surrounding space, without having to look. Having good proprioception improves your balance, agility, and coordination, helps you move more efficiently, and reduces your risk of injury.
Performing the SLDL too quickly prevents you from owning the “sticking points” (the parts where, when performed correctly, you might struggle a little more, literally getting stuck in those parts). One common error I see is valgus collapse, which is when the knee caves inward. While this can happen simply due to performing the descent too quickly, sometimes it’s happening due to a lack of strength in a very important muscle: the vastus medialis. Or more specifically, the portion of this muscle just above the knee, called the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO). It’s the one that looks like a teardrop.
The VMO is part of the quadriceps muscle group, and its job is to extend the leg at the knee and stabilize the patella (kneecap).
Like the deadlift and Romanian deadlift, the SLDL is a hinge with a neutral spine. Prior to hinging, it is important to plant the front foot and extend the back leg straight behind you. When you start this movement with the back leg bent, it can cause you to hunch or round your back as you hinge forward. Rounding your spine in this position, particularly while lifting a heavy weight, can cause back pain and greatly increases your risk of injury.
As you hinge at the hips, allow the knee of the front leg to bend slightly for greater depth, to increase recruitment in the hamstrings, quads, and glutes. This right here make the SLDL more efficient than a straight-leg (or stiff-leg) deadlift, which doesn’t recruit as many muscle fibers.
It is important to keep the hips and shoulders square to the floor and not raise the non-working leg too high. Raising the leg too high will cause you to arch your lumbar spine and lose that very important glute contraction on the back leg.
Instead, think about extending your body from the top of your head to the very tip of your heel of the back leg in a straight line. A helpful cue here is to visualize reaching with your your heel to try to touch a wall behind you that is too far away for you to actually reach. By thinking about reaching behind you toward a wall, you will deepen your hinge, maintain alignment, and recruit more muscles.
Keep your back leg straight, bend the front leg, maintain a straight line from your head to the heel of your back foot.
After you have spent time practicing the slow bodyweight SLDL, record a short video of yourself to see if you have perfected the movement. If you’re confident and comfortable, now you can pattern the movement loaded with either a kettlebell, dumbbell, or barbell. Remember, especially when loading the SLDL with a heavy load, to maintain the slow and mindful movement, and make sure you’re not rushing past a sticking point.
The post 6 Ways To Maximize Your Single-Leg Deadlift appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/
The single-leg deadlift (SLDL) is about a whole lot more than building a strong, tight booty (although I don’t mind that side effect at all!)
It’s about improving your overall body function, strength, and performance. It improves balance, foot strength, ankle mobility, knee stability, hamstring flexibility, hip hinge ability, posture, shoulder stability, grip strength, as well as strength in the hamstrings and quadriceps. And, of course, glute strength and definition.
So, while as you might expect, the SLDL will increase your strength for your squat and deadlifts, it will also impact your performance on many other strength moves. For example, at StrongFirst, we use the SLDL as a tool to increase balance and strength for pistol squats as well as as the lunge pattern for the Turkish get-up. Few other exercises bring improvement across such a varied range as quickly and effectively as the SLDL.
Plus, there are many progressions and regressions for the SLDL, making this exercise appropriate for all strength and fitness levels—as well as useful for those who want to wave the loads in their training week. Add slow bodyweight reps, weighted reps, and holds at your sticking points into your weekly training program. (You can perform this movement at a fairly high volume without over-working the knees.)
Unfortunately, apart from being widely underutilized, the SLDL is also often performed incorrectly, putting exercisers on the fast-track to injury.
Before adding weight, first use only your bodyweight to pattern the proper movement slowly. Practice hinging at the hip while maintaining proper alignment and tension, before adding weights.
By gripping the floor with your toes you will feel more rooted to the ground, which will improve your balance and strengthen your feet. As you grip and create a more stable base, this allows you to focus on the tracking of your hip, knee, and toe as you descend into the hip hinge.
It will also help to increase your proprioception, that is, your ability to sense the position and movement of your body parts in the surrounding space, without having to look. Having good proprioception improves your balance, agility, and coordination, helps you move more efficiently, and reduces your risk of injury.
Performing the SLDL too quickly prevents you from owning the “sticking points” (the parts where, when performed correctly, you might struggle a little more, literally getting stuck in those parts). One common error I see is valgus collapse, which is when the knee caves inward. While this can happen simply due to performing the descent too quickly, sometimes it’s happening due to a lack of strength in a very important muscle: the vastus medialis. Or more specifically, the portion of this muscle just above the knee, called the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO). It’s the one that looks like a teardrop.
The VMO is part of the quadriceps muscle group, and its job is to extend the leg at the knee and stabilize the patella (kneecap).
Like the deadlift and Romanian deadlift, the SLDL is a hinge with a neutral spine. Prior to hinging, it is important to plant the front foot and extend the back leg straight behind you. When you start this movement with the back leg bent, it can cause you to hunch or round your back as you hinge forward. Rounding your spine in this position, particularly while lifting a heavy weight, can cause back pain and greatly increases your risk of injury.
As you hinge at the hips, allow the knee of the front leg to bend slightly for greater depth, to increase recruitment in the hamstrings, quads, and glutes. This right here make the SLDL more efficient than a straight-leg (or stiff-leg) deadlift, which doesn’t recruit as many muscle fibers.
It is important to keep the hips and shoulders square to the floor and not raise the non-working leg too high. Raising the leg too high will cause you to arch your lumbar spine and lose that very important glute contraction on the back leg.
Instead, think about extending your body from the top of your head to the very tip of your heel of the back leg in a straight line. A helpful cue here is to visualize reaching with your your heel to try to touch a wall behind you that is too far away for you to actually reach. By thinking about reaching behind you toward a wall, you will deepen your hinge, maintain alignment, and recruit more muscles.
Keep your back leg straight, bend the front leg, maintain a straight line from your head to the heel of your back foot.
After you have spent time practicing the slow bodyweight SLDL, record a short video of yourself to see if you have perfected the movement. If you’re confident and comfortable, now you can pattern the movement loaded with either a kettlebell, dumbbell, or barbell. Remember, especially when loading the SLDL with a heavy load, to maintain the slow and mindful movement, and make sure you’re not rushing past a sticking point.
The post 6 Ways To Maximize Your Single-Leg Deadlift appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
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