Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
Plain and simple, a deload is a short planned period of recovery. You take your training slightly lighter, maybe workout a little less, and generally just ease things back. A typical deload will last a week.
To the uninitiated outsider, deloads seem like a waste of time or an excuse to sit on your butt for a week, watching TV instead of hitting the gym and shifting some heavy lumps of iron.
Not so fast.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
Eggs and bacon or eggs and sausage with black or collagen coffee are typical keto breakfasts, but this keto egg bake is a nutrient-dense and satiating option for weekend morning when you a bit more time. Weave it into your Sunday meal prep routine, bake it, cool it, portion it and wrap in parchment paper, and store it in the refrigerator. On busy weekday mornings, take a portion out of the fridge to warm up on the counter, or to heat for a few minutes in the oven or toaster oven. Re-wrap the portioned egg bake in the parchment paper, grab a napkin (don’t forget your travel coffee mug), and you have breakfast on the go.
Instead of the hash browns or bread cubes you might typically find in an egg bake or breakfast casserole, we used grated turnips, but you could also substitute grated parsnips, zucchini, or even carrots or sweet potatoes if you want a Primal egg bake. We used ground chicken, but you could also use ground turkey, beef, sausage, bison, or lamb. Same thing for the other vegetables—instead of kale and cabbage, you could use Swiss or rainbow chard, shredded Brussels sprouts, or baby spinach.
Servings: 6
Time: 50 minutes
Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Grate the turnips on a box grater. Press the grated turnip between two pieces of paper towel to remove any excess water, then measure the grated turnips to get 2 ½ cups worth.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the shallots and sauté for 2–3 minutes. Add the ground meat and break it up in the pan to encourage the meat to brown. As the meat cooks, season it with salt and pepper.
Once the meat is browned and cooked through, add in the turnips and sauté for 3–5 minutes, or until the turnips begin to soften. Add the greens and dill and stir until the greens are wilted. Season with salt to taste. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool slightly.
Whisk the eggs in a bowl with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Pour the eggs in the pan with the meat until everything is combined. Pour the egg mixture into a greased or parchment-lined baking dish. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until the center of the bake is firm and cooked through. Allow to slightly cool before cutting into 6 sections and serving.
Calories: 283
Total Carbs: 7 grams
Net Carbs: 4 grams
Fat: 19 grams
Protein: 24 grams
The post Keto Egg Bake appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Ah, the dog days of winter have arrived, and as temperatures dip, millions of people in our country struggle to get through their week with a sore throat, runny nose, coughing, and fatigue. Perhaps you are one of those who are batting rhinovirus at this very minute. While there are many things that you can […]
http://chriskresser.com/
What’s the average health coach salary? Check out this article for information that can help you gauge how much you can expect to earn in this profession.
The post Health Coach Salary: What You Need to Know appeared first on Chris Kresser.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
The environmental footprint of different diets is not what we’ve been led to believe.
Genetic analysis of ancient Hungarian conquerors.
Men on a low-fat diet may have lower testosterone.
Glucose metabolism takes center stage in Alzheimer’s.
Episode 399: Kate Cretsinger: Host Elle Russ chats with Kate Cretsinger, who after defeating her own serious health problems through nutrition, became a coach, helping others do the same.
Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 43: Laura and Erin chat with Anna Fruehling, a practicing health coach living in Grand Island, Nebraska. In her small town, local physicians refer patients with metabolic syndrome to Fruehling because of her unique approach.
Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.
What are the consequences of constantly eating microplastics?
Turns out that many common medications affect our brains, and even our personalities.
Remember all those researchers who rushed to criticize studies that suggested red meat probably doesn’t cause heart disease and cancer? Turns out they have strong financial ties to the plant-based industry.
Watch me make deviled eggs.
Did Thoreau’s diet do him in?
Dr. Oz on breakfast: a “ploy” that we should “cancel.”
Is carb loading necessary for an athlete? How one type 1 diabetes athlete manages to avoid it.
Funny how that works: Human brains got bigger right before the (delicious) megafauna started disappearing.
Article I found interesting: The people trying to save scents from extinction.
Bad for you, bad for the environment: Obesity.
I know people like this: Addicted to exercise.
Unintended consequences: Brazil wanted to get rid of daylight savings time. Now they miss it.
Should cell phones be outlawed for anyone under 21?
One year ago (Jan 11– Jan 17)
“‘C’mon, people. The experts have spoken. Isn’t it about time you stopped with the keto nonsense?’
Um no.”
– Exactly, Angelica.
The post Weekly Link Love – Edition 64 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Ah, honey, one of nature’s greatest treasures. This liquid gold is the pride of the bees and one of the most beneficial and nutrient-rich substances available on the planet. If you think that honey is just useful for sweetening your tea or making salad dressing, you’ve got another think coming. Buckle up as we explore […]
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
It’s curious how not eating can spark so many questions and debates. A practice born out of necessity for our ancestors, fasting for long stretches happened when weather or circumstance hampered hunting and gathering, or for shorter periods while on the hunt or foraging.
As food has become readily available and abundant in many countries, our near-constant state of food arousal can dull the hormonal drivers that regulate appetite and, ironically, lead us to want to counteract the overabundance with some restriction. When we eat too much too often, we get the natural inclination to push back from the table and vow not to consume another bite for a (possibly long) while.
Fasting, particularly intermittent fasting, is gaining popularity now as a weight loss and weight management tool. As some celebrities proclaim that intermittent fasting is one of their “secrets” to their hard Hollywood-worthy bods, more and more people will be keen to latch on. We compiled a list of our greatest hits on fasting and intermittent fasting to provide education and context around how intermittent fasting works, reasons you may want to try it, reasons you may not want to try it, and considerations for athletes who want to fast.
First, let’s start with the basics. Before making any changes to your eating (or non-eating) habits, it’s important to understand:
Do the effects of fasting differ for men and women? What are the most common things people get wrong about fasting? Is fasting an effective tool for weight loss? We answer those questions, and more, in the following articles.
Fasting can be really beneficial to those who are trying to lose fat. Yes, that’s fat and not weight. Unlike some other kinds of weight-loss methods, which result in loss of water weight or muscle mass, fasting can effectively get rid of fat.
There is no one way to do IF. The only real guideline is that, as always, the food you eat should be healthy. (It’s pretty clear how we choose to characterize that.) In addition to the substantial health benefits, the simplicity and flexibility are what draw people to IF.
Dry fasting is going without both food and fluid. That means no coffee, no tea, no broth, and no water or liquid of any kind (except the saliva you manage to produce). It’s an extreme type of fast whose fans and practitioners are adamant that it can resolve serious health issues. But does it? Is it safe? And what kind of research is available on it?
Both fasting and carb-restriction appear to operate along similar physiological pathways. Both lower carbs. Both increase fat-adaptation. Both have the potential to get you into ketosis. Both lower insulin and blood sugar. But is one better than the other?
If you’re making fasting mistakes, you might never accomplish the benefits you were hoping for. Before you throw in the towel, I want to help you identify some possible fasting pitfalls you might not be aware of and also help you avoid them.
Fasting is one way to have your cake and eat it too. Beyond the already proven benefits of a Primal Blueprint low-carb lifestyle, fasting once in a while seems to offer many of the same benefits of calorie restriction—you know, stuff like increased longevity, neuroprotection, increased insulin sensitivity, stronger resistance to stress, some cool effects on endogenous hormone production, increased mental clarity, plus more—but without the active, agonizing restriction.
With fasting, perhaps the most important variable to consider is your biological sex. This really does make intuitive sense. Biology cares most about your fertility. Can you reproduce? Can you produce healthy offspring that survive to do the same? These things come first. And from that perspective, a woman’s situation is more precarious than a man’s.
Primal folks who are losing weight or looking to lose a bit more, and getting the right lifestyle changes enacted (sleep, exercise, sex, leisure, rest, relaxation, mental stimulation) should definitely try fasting. They will likely flourish.
How do you know if your fasting regimen may be slipping into the grey area of potential orthorexia or disordered eating? We can’t diagnose anyone in an article, of course, but there are signs to watch out for if you have personal concerns or worries about others.
Anytime you attempt a “radical” health practice like not eating, it helps to have a good reason to do it. That will not only give you something to aim for, but it will ensure you actually have a physiological justification for your experiment. Never go in blind. What are some of the specific scenarios and conditions where fasting makes the most sense?
If fasting for more than three days sounds riskier than just skipping breakfast, you’re right. Long fasts can get you into trouble. They’re a big commitment. You shouldn’t just stumble into one because it sounds interesting or some guy on your Twitter feed wrote about it.
It’s the nature of many beings—particularly those with weight-loss goals, it seems—to want to know what the “rules” are so they can look for the loopholes to bend them. It’s no surprise that the top-performing article last year on Mark’s Daily Apple was “Does Coffee Break a Fast?” Consequently, we followed up with an article about whether bone broth breaks a fast because we received additional questions. Then people wanted to know about supplements—should they be taken while fasting? We then created a definitive guide to what breaks a fast. If there’s any other liquid, leaf, pill, stone, or twig we neglected to examine, let us know in the comments section.
Most people aren’t fasting to be able to brag about eating no calories for X number of days. They fast for shorter (often intermittent) periods of time for specific health benefits. It’s entirely possible that bone broth “breaks a fast” but allows many of the benefits we associate with fasting to occur.
Does black coffee break a fast? Put another way… Does coffee interfere with the benefits we’re seeking from a fast? Depends on the benefits you’re seeking (and what you put in the coffee).
Let’s look at some of the most common benefits first and if/how coffee affects them.
Does fish oil break a fast? What about my multivitamin, protein powder, collagen, or melatonin? Mark delves into the research to provide definitive answers.
One of the most common questions I get is “Does [x] break a fast?”
What they’re really inquiring about is: “Does this interfere with, negate, or nullify the benefits of fasting?” Let’s go through the most popular queries one by one and figure out how each one affects an intermittent fast.
Does fasting before and during workouts confer any performance perks or additional fat-burning benefits? Should athletes fast before every session, or only specific types of workouts? What are the potential drawbacks to fasting for athletes? Let’s go.
What are my specific recommendations for athletes who wish to explore intermittent fasting? I’ve got 12… plus some details about my own fasting and workout routine.
Sometimes, high stress is exactly what we need to progress—a few heavy sets of squats, some rounds on the Airdyne, a killer CrossFit workout—as long as you can recover from it. A major modulator of our stress is the amount of food we have coming in. At least in theory, exercising in a fasted state could provoke a powerful adaptive response that athletes would find helpful. So, does it stack up? What exactly can intermittent fasting offer athletes?
To some, the idea of working out without “carbing up” or doing the pre-workout protein shake is unthinkable. To others, fasted workouts are sacred tools, the perfect antidote to modern decrepitude. Where does the truth lie?
That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, take care, and leave a comment below if there are more questions you have about IF!
The post Intermittent Fasting: How It Works, Reasons to Try It & Considerations for Athletes appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
What’s sweet, red, sticky, and deadly?
Blood sugar. (I’m sure there are other things that qualify, but most of them contain sugar of some sort so I’m sticking with it.)
Too little of it, and you go into hypoglycemic shock. That can kill you if left untreated.
Too much of it, and you waste away slowly. Chronic overexposure to sugar will degenerate your tissues and organs.
Yes, getting blood sugar right is extremely important. Vital, even.
Today, I’m going to explain how and why we measure blood sugar, what the numbers mean, why we need to control it, and how to maintain that control.
First, blood sugar is tightly controlled in the body. The average person has between 4-7 grams of sugar circulating throughout their body in a fasted state—that’s around a teaspoon’s worth. How does that work when the average person consumes dozens of teaspoons in a single day?
Again, it’s tightly controlled.
The majority of the sugar “in our system” is quickly whisked away for safekeeping, burning, or conversion. We store as much of it as glycogen in our liver and muscle as we can. We burn some for energy. And, if there’s any left over, we can convert it to fat in the liver.
But sometimes, sugar lingers. In diabetics, for example, blood sugar runs higher than normal. That’s actually how you identify and diagnose a person with diabetes: they have elevated blood sugar.
There are several ways to measure blood sugar.
According to the American Diabetes Association, any fasting blood sugar (FBG) under 100 mg/dl is completely normal. It’s safe. It’s fine. Don’t worry, just keep eating your regular diet, and did you get a chance to try the donuts in the waiting room? They only start to worry at 110-125 (pre-diabetic) and above 125 (diabetic).
This may be unwise. Healthy people subjected to continuous glucose monitoring have much lower average blood glucose—89 mg/dl. A 2008 study found that people with a FBG of 95-99—still “normal”—were 2.33 times more likely to develop diabetes in the future than people on the low-normal end of the scale.
As for postprandial blood glucose, the ADA likes anything under 140 mg/dl.
How about HbA1c? A “normal” HbA1c is anything under 5.7. And 6.0 is diabetic. That’s what the reference ranges, which mostly focuses on diabetes. What does the research say? In this study, under 5 was best for heart disease. In this study, anything over 4.6 was associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
That 5.7 HbA1c isn’t looking so great.
What’s “normal” also depends on your baseline state.
Healthy FBG depends on your BMI. At higher FBG levels, higher BMIs are protective. A recent study showed that optimal fasting blood glucose for mortality gradually increased with bodyweight. Low-normal BMIs had the lowest mortality at normal FBG (under 100), moderately overweight BMIs had the lowest mortality at somewhat impaired FBG (100-125), and the highest BMIs had the lowest mortality at diabetic FBG levels (over 125).
If you’re very low-carb, postprandial blood glucose will be elevated after a meal containing carbs. This is because very low-carb, high-fat diets produce physiological insulin resistance to preserve what little glucose you have for the tissues that depend on it, like certain parts of the brain. The more resistant you are to insulin, the higher your blood glucose response to dietary glucose.
HbA1c depends on a static red blood cell lifespan. A1c seeks to establish the average level of blood sugar circulating through your body over the red blood cell’s life cycle, rather than track blood sugar numbers that rapidly fluctuate through the day, week, and month. If we know how long a red blood cell lives, we have an accurate measurement of chronic blood sugar levels. The clinical consensus assumes the lifespan is three months. Is it?
Not always. The life cycle of an actual red blood cell differs between and even within individuals, and it’s enough to throw off the results by as much as 15 mg/dl.
Ironically, people with healthy blood sugar levels might have inflated HbA1c levels. One study found that folks with normal blood sugar had red blood cells that lived up to 146 days, and RBCs in folks with high blood sugar had life cycles as low as 81 days. For every 1% rise in blood sugar, red blood cell lifespan fell by 6.9 days. In those with better blood sugar control, RBCs lived longer and thus had more time to accumulate sugar and give a bad HbA1c reading. In people with poorer blood sugar control, red blood cells live shorter lives and have less time to accumulate sugar, potentially giving them “better” HbA1c numbers.
Anemia can inflate HbA1c. Anemia depresses the production of red blood cells. If you have fewer red blood cells in circulation, the ones you do have accumulate more sugar since there are fewer cells “competing” for it. Anemia isn’t anything to sniff at, but it does throw off HbA1c.
Okay, is hyperglycemia actually a problem? I’ve heard some suggest that hyperglycemia is a marker of poor metabolic health, but it’s not actually causing anything bad itself. I agree with the first part—hyperglycemia indicates poor metabolic health and is a risk factor for things like heart disease and early mortality—but not the last. Indeed, hyperglycemia is both an effect and direct cause of multiple health issues.
Most cell types, when faced with systemic hyperglycemia, have mechanisms in place to regulate the passage of glucose through their membranes. They can avoid hyperglycemic toxicity by keeping excess sugar out. Other cell types, namely pancreatic beta-cells, neurons, and the cells lining the blood and lymphatic vessels, do not have these mechanisms. In the presence of high blood sugar, they’re unable to keep excess sugar out. It’s to these three types of cells that hyperglycemia is especially dangerous.
Unfortunately, these are all pretty important cells.
What happens when too much glucose makes it into one of these cells?
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation is a normal byproduct of glucose metabolism by the cell’s mitochondria. If the stream of glucose into the cell is unregulated, bad things begin to happen: excessive ROS, a mediator of increased oxidative stress; depletion of glutathione, the prime antioxidant in our bodies; advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) formation; and activation of protein kinase C, a family of enzymes involved in many diabetes-related complications. It’s messy stuff.
How does this play out in the specific cell types that are susceptible, and what does it mean for you?
Pancreatic beta-cells: These cells are responsible for secreting insulin in response to blood glucose. They essentially are the first line of defense against hyperglycemia. If maintained for too long or too often, hyperglycemia inhibits the ability of pancreatic beta-cells to do their job. For instance, type 2 diabetics have reduced pancreatic beta-cell mass; smaller cells have lower functionality. Mitochondrial ROS (often caused by hyperglycemia) also reduce the insulin secreted by the cells, thereby reducing their ability to deal with the hyperglycemia and compounding the initial problem.
Neurons: The brain’s unique affinity for glucose makes its glucose receptor-laden neuronal cells susceptible to hyperglycemia. It simply soaks up glucose, and if there’s excessive amounts floating around, problems arise. Hyperglycemia is consistently linked to cognitive impairment, causes the shrinking of neurons and the inducement of spatial memory loss, and induces neuronal oxidative stress. It also impairs the production of nitric oxide, which is involved in the hippocampus’ regulation of food intake.
Endothelial cells: Flow mediated dilation (FMD) is the measure of a blood vessels’ ability to dilate in response to increased flow demands. Under normal conditions, the endothelial cells release nitric oxide, a vasodilator, in response to increased shear stress. Under hyperglycemic conditions, nitric oxide release is inhibited and FMD reduced. A decreased FMD means your endothelial function is compromised and strongly predicts cardiovascular events (PDF) and may cause atherosclerosis (PDF).
Electrolyte depletion: Persistent hyperglycemia can cause the body to shed glucose by urinating it out. In doing so, you also end up shedding electrolytes.
Okay, okay. Controlling your blood sugar is important. Avoiding hyperglycemia is one of the most important things you can do for your health and longevity. How do I do it?
When I take a bird’s eye view of all this, the best glucose-lowering exercise is the one you’ll do on a regular basis. It’s all good.
If you’re low-carb or keto and need to pass a glucose tolerance test, eat 150-250 grams of carbs per day in the week leading up to the test. This will give you a chance to shift back into sugar-burning mode.
Consistency is everything. Consistently doing all the little tips and hacks we just went over that lower blood sugar in the moment will lead to long term blood sugar control. If you take vinegar before and walk after every single meal for the rest of your life, you will control postprandial blood sugar. If you avoid excess carbohydrates, you will exert long-term control over blood sugar levels. If you exercise 3-4 times a week and get plenty of low-level activity, you’ll be much less likely to have hyperglycemia.
Thus concludes the Definitive Guide to Blood Sugar. If you have any questions or comments, drop them in down below. Thanks for reading!
The post The Definitive Guide to Blood Sugar appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
It happens to all of us from time to time. We pop up out of bed, thinking we are rested and ready to take on the day, only to find ourselves slumped over our desk before noon. Quick and hard out of the gate and slumpy by mid-morning is generally the result of low blood […]
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
While chasing the pump is undoubtedly an effective way to stimulate hypertrophy, it’s not the only way to make your muscles grow. Mechanical tension, the force created when a muscle contracts isotonically against a load, is also a potent stimulator of muscle growth and should be incorporated into your weight training routine for maximal development.
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
click this ==>
