Ok so I may be a bit late to the party, but why stop the party. The reason I bring this up is because Karla sent me an email and in it was an article on this African Mango and how it can help weight loss, clearly it was a joke on her part. However, looking throughout the vast depths of the internet not many other websites are taking it as a joke, they see it as the next big thing, think Hoodia, or acai berry. There are a couple of things I have against this,
1. it was showed on Dr Oz's show, and for all of you who dont know, I cannot stand that show and his charlatan ways.
2. There are a few sites ive seen spouting off information about how the seeds can help with leptin production, well actually help to stop producing it.
3. It has been proven by a few studies, and yes that all and well, however, it was funded in Cameroon. Can you guess where the majority of African Mango's are? Ill give you a hint, its underlined, bolded, italicised, and rhymes with gameroon. I dont know about you, but that seems a little too convienient to me. Not to mention in the study they let the participants track their own calories. Why would they use such a HIGHLY INACCURATE account of the MOST IMPORTANT factor of weight loss.
To further explain #2 a little better for those of you who dont know how leptin works, Ill give a very very brief description of what it is and its role.
Leptin, is a hormone that is sort of like a thermostat for fat. It is produced by the cells but in a much larger amount from fat cells. So the more fat you have, the more leptin you have (under non diet circumstances). The reason for this is to let the leptin receptors in the brain pick up those signals in order to tell how much energy (aka fat) the body has stored, this was an adaptive component for survival during the days we didnt have easy access to tons of calories. So as you lose fat the less leptin your body will produce, interestingly enough when you first stop dieting your body will drop its leptin levels by 50% or so, showing how much you body loves your fat. So your brain begins to think it is losing fat so it wants you to eat more so making you hungrier, as well as making many many other hormones in the body fluctuate.
Rough summary: Normal levels of Leptin good
Low levels bad.
thus getting back to topic, why would a site wanting to sell this product say the seeds do exactly the opposite of what they want it to do? I dont think they were meaning to deceive you but it certainly does speak on behalf of their credibility.
Moral of the story, dont go ahead and believe everything you hear and see. Just because it was proved in a study doesnt mean its true, you have to actually look at the details, sometimes details do matter.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Back to Exercise
Yesterday was the first day I checked out our new Student Recreation Center at CSUN. Damn that place is huge and awesome. The Gym i work at is a quarter of the size of one of their smaller weight sections. So luckily I can now just run to the gym between classes or if i get out early and yesterday I did just that. Had 3 separate gym sessions, all together yesterday I did a lot of exercise. Sets each consisting of 1 minutes of time under load (meaning my muscles had tension on them the whole time).
8 Sets of Chest Press
6 sets of latpull down
9 sets of rows
7 sets of leg press
4 sets of shoulders
2 sets of incline press.
Yesterday was also no where near what I should have eaten;
4 Scoops Whey Protein (480 calories 96 Protein)
3 oz of Mac's Chicharones (480 calories 54 Protein)
2oz Chicken (90 Calories 18 Protein)
3oz Steak (170 calories 27 Protein)
1 Cup Mushrooms
1/2 Green Pepper
5 Brussel Sprouts
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter (180 calories 7 Protein)
As you can see very low carbs and high protein and moderate fat. Still allowing for carb depletion especially with the type of exercise I had yesterday quite intensive. I sleep amazing, or as I told Austin this morning, I went in a coma for 8 hours.
Not quite as sore as I thought I might be this morning, but later tonight I will be feeling it.
Today I will be eating the same as yesterday, except for the possibility of cutting out the peanut butter, and some other type of fat and protein in place of the chicharones, something with a little more vitamin content.
As for today's exercise, I will be doing an idea marketed by Lyle McDonald and proven to be efficient by his forum and many experiments he has done with clients. It will consist of anywhere between 5-10 minutes of 1-1 minute intervals to cause some more fatigue and lactic acid build up. Then 5 minute rest, then 45 minutes of steady state cardio, preferably resting.
WARNING: this is only of some merit for those under 10% body fat and sometimes doesn't even help until lower than that roughly 7.5% and lower
The fatigue part isn't very important for dieting, and typically interval training would be a horrible idea, hence the short time. The lactic acid build up has some merit here, well not in it of its self, but the effects it has in the body once it is cleared. Once it is cleared the body releases a large amount of Free Fatty Acids or (FFA's) preferentially from 'stubborn fat' (just means there is not much blood flow and typically the body doesn't take much fat from here and only starts too once the other fat stores are low or depleted). Then to expedite the oxidation process I will be performing steady state cardio, but not too intense where I create lactic acid which will blunt the effects that we just tried to set.
Tangentially, just a tip for people trying to lose weight and stay motivated, who you surround yourself with will drastically change the difficulty of losing that weight. Hard to stick to diet, talk with your significant other or whoever you normally eat with and tell them your plans and how hard it is to stay on the bandwagon when you are confronted with tasty fatty food.
Hard to get up in the morning to gym, do the same. Also there is some merit, in having someone text you telling you every time they are at the gym, make it a texting battle, it will definitely help to fuel you
And with that I am done for today, hope something here helped to motivate you, helped you learn something, or even just helped you kill some time.
8 Sets of Chest Press
6 sets of latpull down
9 sets of rows
7 sets of leg press
4 sets of shoulders
2 sets of incline press.
Yesterday was also no where near what I should have eaten;
4 Scoops Whey Protein (480 calories 96 Protein)
3 oz of Mac's Chicharones (480 calories 54 Protein)
2oz Chicken (90 Calories 18 Protein)
3oz Steak (170 calories 27 Protein)
1 Cup Mushrooms
1/2 Green Pepper
5 Brussel Sprouts
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter (180 calories 7 Protein)
As you can see very low carbs and high protein and moderate fat. Still allowing for carb depletion especially with the type of exercise I had yesterday quite intensive. I sleep amazing, or as I told Austin this morning, I went in a coma for 8 hours.
Not quite as sore as I thought I might be this morning, but later tonight I will be feeling it.
Today I will be eating the same as yesterday, except for the possibility of cutting out the peanut butter, and some other type of fat and protein in place of the chicharones, something with a little more vitamin content.
As for today's exercise, I will be doing an idea marketed by Lyle McDonald and proven to be efficient by his forum and many experiments he has done with clients. It will consist of anywhere between 5-10 minutes of 1-1 minute intervals to cause some more fatigue and lactic acid build up. Then 5 minute rest, then 45 minutes of steady state cardio, preferably resting.
WARNING: this is only of some merit for those under 10% body fat and sometimes doesn't even help until lower than that roughly 7.5% and lower
The fatigue part isn't very important for dieting, and typically interval training would be a horrible idea, hence the short time. The lactic acid build up has some merit here, well not in it of its self, but the effects it has in the body once it is cleared. Once it is cleared the body releases a large amount of Free Fatty Acids or (FFA's) preferentially from 'stubborn fat' (just means there is not much blood flow and typically the body doesn't take much fat from here and only starts too once the other fat stores are low or depleted). Then to expedite the oxidation process I will be performing steady state cardio, but not too intense where I create lactic acid which will blunt the effects that we just tried to set.
Tangentially, just a tip for people trying to lose weight and stay motivated, who you surround yourself with will drastically change the difficulty of losing that weight. Hard to stick to diet, talk with your significant other or whoever you normally eat with and tell them your plans and how hard it is to stay on the bandwagon when you are confronted with tasty fatty food.
Hard to get up in the morning to gym, do the same. Also there is some merit, in having someone text you telling you every time they are at the gym, make it a texting battle, it will definitely help to fuel you
And with that I am done for today, hope something here helped to motivate you, helped you learn something, or even just helped you kill some time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)