Why you get carb cravings and what you can do about them

Almost everybody I see who alters their diet to include more vegetables and less processed carbohydrates experiences the feeling of sugar cravings and inconsistent energy levels at some point along their journey.
 
I find it fascinating that something as simple as a craving can be so intense as to completely reverse someone's intentions. One day you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and sincerely promise that today is the day you stop eating junk; only to be foiled 12 hours later when the post dinner chocolate cravings come. It's actually quite sad when you think about it.
 
Cadbury's (or to whomever you go to get your fix) are reaching into your wallet, helping themselves and leaving you feeling worse, slightly fatter and generally lousy; and there's nothing you can do about it.
 
The main physiological causes of this weakness are as follows:

• Inadequate fat burning following dietary alteration
• Blood sugar imbalances
• Micronutrient deficiencies

 
Burning fat vs. burning carbs

Your body really doesn't need a lot of carbs to function well, in fact it can function without them completely. It's better not to, and I would not recommend it but it is theoretically possible; there are no essential carbohydrates.
 
When you reduce your carb intake, what normally follows are sugar cravings. It's just the same as a smoker stopping smoking, your body gets used to doing things a certain way and when it no longer has the resources to function as it was, it tells you it needs sugar.
 
But it can adapt, for some it takes a few days, for others it takes a lot longer, but eventually everyone is capable of living on a low carb diet quite happily.
 
Blood sugar imbalances
 
Most people are somewhere along the line for developing diabetes. You don't get clinically diagnosed with diabetes until you hit stage 4 beta cell dysfunction. But many people are sitting completely unaware at the very stable stage 2 (stage 1 being healthy).
 
This means that people don't handle their sugar as well as they could do. They get spikes of insulin regularly, and they also experience blood sugar dips if they go too long without eating.
 
This is why when you have hardly had anything to eat all day until you get out of work you make bad, impulsive food choices. Your body just wants sugary, fast energy as quickly as possible.
 
People think sugar cravings are normal. They think that low energy levels in the afternoon are normal. They think sleeping less than 8 hours a night is normal, and they're right. It's just everyone is unhealthy.
 
Getting too much junk, and not enough food.
 
When you body lacks essential nutrients it is unable to process your food properly and the result is low energy and poor blood sugar control.
 
Take the example of magnesium. Almost everyone is deficient and most of those who supplement with a multivitamin are too, because they take it in an indigestible, cheap, low quality form. Magnesium deficiency reduced the effectiveness of your muscles and organs taking sugar out of your blood. This contributes to high blood sugar and stage 2 beta cell dysfunction, it's that simple.
 
But we are also conditioned to psychologically crave sugar. Through conditioning and boredom. When we are emotional we give ourselves a temporary lift from eating sugar.
 
So how can you fight back against cravings?

The first is to improve your diet, by addressing the poor blood sugar management, nutrient deficiencies and allowing your body to adapt to a lower carb diet, the cravings will reduce. But for most this isn't the problem.
 
Food for thought:
 
Imagine you have some carb source that you are craving, shouldn't be too hard ... Let's say a lovely comforting bowl of banana porridge, maybe some raisins chucked in for good measure.
 
 
 
It's sitting right in front of you, you can move it forwards and backwards , you can move it left and right. You can even move it in a third dimension by picking it up off the table. But how about you take that bowl of porridge and move it along the fourth dimension, time.
 
Right now that bowl of porridge offers you no measurable long term benefit. In fact by eating it you will be jeopardising your future self. How many times have you regretted eating something and been annoyed at yourself?
 
By eating that porridge immediately you are hurting your future by denying yourself the ability to achieve what you want to achieve. You are demonstrating your preference for the current version of yourself as opposed to the future version, but there is a vital point on which you are missing out. Your future self will become your present self. The 'right now' urge you have now will be a 'right now' regret in an hour.
 
You are solely responsible for your past self selling out to buy ice cream, booze and chocolate.
 
Instead of acting impulsively, act intelligently. Use the fourth dimension to your advantage, you really can have you porridge and eat it too.
 
The value of that meal is nothing now, but in the future after a period of abstinence it will be incredibly valuable. As a post-workout reefed meal if will be used to spark your metabolism into life, burn more fat, increase your carb tolerance and fill out your muscles.
 
By delaying your indulgence and acting intelligently you have really learned to love yourself. Past, present and future. The secret to discipline, consistency and success is valuing your future as much as you value the present.

'Successful people do what they have to do, whether they feel like it or not'


 

Timing carbohydrates to maximise results

Here's the deal, carbs are great. They taste good and make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, and the good news is that as long as you eat within your tolerance, there is no reason not to enjoy them in your diet. But when is the best time to have them? Morning, night time or all the time?

Let's hear the argument for the morning



When you wake up, it should be at least 8 hours since your last feeding. As a result of this overnight fast your insulin sensitivity is a little higher than it is during the day. The benefit of this is that the food you consume for breakfast is more likely to be shuttled into your muscles than it is at other times of the day, meaning more energy and less body fat. 

But there is a second effect of carbs, they affect serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which affects mood, the more of it you have, the better you feel. This is one of the reasons why you get that happy feeling when you eat a sugary treat. Chocolate really is as good as prozac. 

Breakfast sets your brain chemistry for the remainder of the day. So if you begin the day with a sugary breakfast cereal, your body will want to keep that kind of food going for the rest of day. Eating carbs in the morning may be better for body composition in the short term; when it is contextualised into a whole day of carb cravings it may not be such a clever idea. 

How about the evening?



Rule one of dieting not to eat carbs after 6pm. The reason for this is when you go to sleep you are just going to store all of the sugar as fat. After all you can be less active than when you're asleep. 

Wrong

When you are asleep you are actually very active. Your body uses this time to heal recover and grow, so you need fuel to keep you going.

Also you can cash in on that serotonin rise as it will help to reduce stress and allow us to sleep better.   

So all in all I would recommend starting the day with a low carb meat breakfast, smoked mackerel and cashew nuts is a personal favourite, and then end the day with a moderate portion of carbs to go with you meal. 

Even better would be to train in the evening and then treat your carbohydrate meal as your post workout meal. 

Here's why you probably can't squat what you say you can squat

If you took 100 people in the general public you wanted to improve their fitness to some degree, how many different specific goals do you think you would hear?

I'd say not many.

For about 99% of people out there all they care about is improved aesthetics from altered body composition. This term covers:

• Muscle gain
• Fat loss
• Toning up
• Leaning down
• Getting abs
• Losing bingo wings
• Getting 'fit' for a beach holiday

All these people want the same thing and they will all receive broadly similar advice, 'Eat less junk food and more food food'.

So what about the other aspects of fitness? Here's a few more:

• Agility
• Mobility
• Stability
• Strength
• Power
• Posture
• Speed
• Aerobic fitness
• Anaerobic fitness

Today I'd like to discuss flexibility and why I believe it is so important.

Here's a classic example that I hear from people who train, and aren't really sure of what they're doing.

"I hit a new PB today on the squat, I got 160kg for three reps."

Did you though, really?

My response to this is usually the same, can you squat your body weight though?

Most people give me a look of derision when I ask this question and, when they say yes, I'm usually faced with something like this:

 

If when asked, they sit just off the floor with their back flat and their heels on the floor then I stand back, tell them how impressed I am and to keep up the good work. (This hasn't happened yet).

 

The beauty of free weights is that they don't just isolate strength training, they force people to develop patterns of movement which make them more flexible and have better posture (healthier).

 

The simple truth is that if you are squatting 160kgs like this then you really aren't doing anything apart from creating an imbalance. I'll explain why.

 

Most of the power in the top half of a squat (demonstrated above) comes from straightening your knees. Conversely most of the power from the bottom of a squat comes from your glutes and hamstrings.

 

Any functional gain in terms of power and strength in an athletic sense will be greatly reduced. By chucking 160kgs on your back and straightening your knees, you're developing a very well defined pair of quadriceps, underdeveloped glutes and a knee/hip injury.

 

Rant over - Here's what to do

 

Put down the bar bell, put down your ego and train body weight until you can do a full deep overhead squat.

 

Perform flexibility training as follows.

 

Foam rolling

ART

Dynamic Stretching

Static Stretching

PNF Stretching

Motor Pattering

 

Treat it like you would treat your strength training. A flexibility session takes an hour. Commit to it and do it with rest periods and adequate recovery afterwards. If you do this, your flexibility will improve dramatically in a few weeks.

 

What needs to be done specifically is entirely dependent on the individual and what their limiting factor is. Contact me if you have any queries.

Call - 01162763411
Twitter - @rwlgym
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JeffLynchRwlGymCoach


Well done...

80's Disco Workout, The British Heart Foundation and Racing Heart Rates

They're all coming to RWL!

As you know we're all about 'Embracing and Driving Change' 

All of the programs we create for you are based around science and real world application, however, we are always asking ourselves one question -

"How can we make our programs faster, better and more accurate at getting real time results?"

Thinking about the above question we also asked ourselves this - 

"Time is limited in the gym, so how can we maximise this time enough and ensure that we are creating a maximum metabolic disturbance for members' programs?"

You see, your time is valuable; even more valuable when it comes to training in the gym because at the most the majority of you have only 1-2 times per week to train. Having done the maths on this, it equates to about 1% of your total time across any given week.

"What can we do then to focus on maximising this 1%?"

In some people's eyes, this 1% needs to make you feel that your receiving a maximum return for your time, effort and investment whilst at the gym. It's especially important that we scrutinise this even more!

In a moment I'll show you what we have planned for you...

But before I do I would like to see how many of you would be interested in attending an 'old school 80's disco workout to help us launch this new service at RWL?

I can just imagine how fun it will be, Jeff and Sam in luminous stockings and sweat bands !! 

Now, that would be a reason more than anything to see those pair dressed up, especially if this picture is anything to go by? 

If you are interested in us doing something like this, just leave us a comment below and I'll get right too it!

It'll be on Friday 1st November, if you would be up for that?

Now, back to where I started...

1%.. I still cant get my head around that, it's crazy! Now, the question that you are probably thinking is "Joe, exactly how do you plan on maximising my time in the gym when the programs you deliver are already written by an award winning coach, and although the team of experts you have are small, as a team it is both informative and knowledgeable?" 

Blown our own trumpet there for a minute then :)

Well, you just wait there my friend... here's my wicked plan!

Over the last few months we've been working tirelessly with Polar who are undoubtedly the pioneers when it comes to heart rate training. You've probably seen the heart rate watches before or you may have tried monitoring your heart rate on a cardio machine back in the day before you met us. Basically, it is a geeky way of monitoring your workout intensity via your own heart rate and there are different zones that you can train in etc. 

Polar have devised a group training system by the name of Polar Gx. Here is an example here - 

 

Not bad right? 

Our programs are also based on this theory, and backed by the science of post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), and to have the opportunity for a heart rate monitored training program designed to keep your heart in a specific target zone that would further stimulate your metabolism and increase your calorie burning is EXACTLY the sort of thing we were looking for to provide you with the faster, better and more accurate result!!

So, instead of us just motivating you to push yourself until challenged, the aim for you now is to hit your target heart rate by the time your workout is complete. 

We've adopted the Polar Gx system and made some minor adjustments to enable us to monitor you individually. 

It enables us to individually set your heart rate and training zones that concur with your personal program. You just have to log in once and it will then log you in automatically as soon as you step through the front door. Everytime.

It helps us track each client's heart rate - you get your very own heart rate sensor.

The Heart Rate Sensor

It enables us to see what intensity you are working towards throughout the whole training session which will only motivate you even more when you are here and it provides us coaches a ton of data to keep you accountable to.

Heart rates, intensities are shown in real time, on a screen in the gym.

Even though your namer is displayed alongside everyone else's it doesn't mean you will be competing against anyone else, you'll just be competing against yourself.  The others will be there to just help motivate you. Plus the other heart rates are not your own - remember it is set on your personal data no one else's.

We both can analyse the data.

Have we sold it to you yet :)

If you've read this far you must be intrigued by it. As you may have noticed I get especially excited over things like this... geek!!!

What I like most about this is the fact that after every training session you complete, a copy of your stats will be emailed to you. There are all sorts of apps also available that work alongside this which enable us to design home programs and monitor your intensity whilst you are away from the gym. 

The example below show's you  comparing against other members, but you can also compare your own training sessions. 

Your probably thinking... "Enough, enough Joe, how do I get my hands on this?"

Well, we plan to launch this on Friday 1st November alongside our disco workout but if you cannot wait till then and you want to get started right away we are doing a special promotion.

And that is - If you purchase one now, or before the launch event we will donate 10% of the sales to the British Heart Foundation.

Here is the link to pre order your H7 Heart Rate Sensor now - Please order my H7 Heart Rate Sensor

Again 10% of all sales will be donated to the British Heart Foundation

If you are still unsure, then we are going to be demonstrating the full benefits of the Polar Heart Rate System the week commencing the 21st October for a whole week. 

If you could just let us know in advance if you are thinking of demoing this then we can prepare this for you. We have a set of trial heart rate sensor's on order so no need to worry about purchasing one. 

A coach will demonstrate how the heart rate monitor system works in a live training session with yourself. 

Here is the link to pre order your H7 Heart Rate Sensor now - Please order my H7 Heart Rate Sensor

To recap, here are the main benefits:

• More consistency in your workouts
• Burn calories up to 38 hours post workout
• Faster and better results
• Scientifically designed and tracked
•  Extra motivation to break through plateaus
• Individualised

And that's all!

If you have any questions about any of the above, please leave a comment or drop me an email. 

Joe

P.S. If you are dead serious about attending the launch party do let me know so that I can gather how many can make it.

P.P.S.  Here is the link to pre order your H7 Heart Rate Sensor now - Please order my H7 Heart Rate Sensor

Milk and sugar?

The tea industry in the UK is worth £652,000,000 annually. That accounts for nearly 67 billion cups of tea! A drink made popular by the upper class, it is now one of the most down to earth and basic commodities you can buy.

What's the first thing that happens when you go over to somebody's house?

'Would you like a cuppa? Milk and sugar?'



The good news is that tea has a plethora of health benefits, but there is a problem. Most people have it with sugar and only very few have it straight up without milk.

First let's address the sugar. My opinion is going to be fairly predictable on this one, but there is good reason for it.

Tea contains caffeine, which makes people feel like they have lots of energy. Part of the reason for this is that the hormones which are stimulated by this drug release sugar and fat into our blood stream, ready for use. This is great news, but alongside this comes a concurrent rise in insulin. Whether this is a problem or not really is up for debate. Having said that, we can be sure that adding more sugar into your blood stream in its fastest digesting form can only make it worse.

So surprise, surprise it's a no to sugar if you want to lose body fat and stay as healthy as possible. The sugar may not make much of a difference but the 3 custard cremes definitely will.



The second point to address is the adding of milk to tea. We all know that milk is good for you as it contains vitamin D, calcium and natural sugars. But it is also bad for you because it is processed (homogenised and pasteurised), it contains simple sugars and most people are intolerant to dairy to a degree.

But I'm not bothered about that, there is something more interesting to talk about.

The adding of milk to tea neutralises it's antioxidant benefits. It does this in the upper GI tract by binding milk proteins (casein in particular) to the polyphenols in the tea. This means that they are unable to be absorbed and simply pass through.

To most, the antioxidant properties of tea are the only real benefit of the drink. If by adding milk every time, thinking it's just a bit of milk all they are left with is the effect of the caffeine.

This might be good, if they have it in the morning and don't over do it. However if you are someone who drinks a lot of tea and finds they have a hard time losing body fat off their stomach then tea may not be a good choice for you.

So, you're left with tea which is no longer the comforting pick me up which you love so much, but a bitter hot drink which offers nothing like the same feeling.



Instead go for licorice tea, chai tea, mint tea or any other herbal tea which can offer you a taste you like.

Alternatively if you have a sweet tooth but need a caffeine kick, go for a green tea blend which takes some of the edge of the bitterness. You will get all of the health benefits and all of the comfort in one go!

Release the Dogma - September's Seminar!!!

Evidence based resistance training recommendations from RWLGym
 
 
Slide 2

Resistance training produces an array of health benefits, as well as the potential to promote muscular adaptations of strength, size, power and endurance. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) regularly publish a position stand making recommendations for optimal achievement of the desired training goals. However, the most recent position stand (as well as previous ones) has come under heavy criticism for misrepresentation of research, lack of evidence and author bias. Therefore this paper proposes a set of scientifically rigorous resistance training guidelines, reviewing and summarising the relevant research for the purpose of proposing more logical, evidence-based training advice.

Slide 5
 

The word strength is an ambiguous term, it can mean a lot of things. For example:

Two people can pick up the same weight, one person takes 1 second and the other takes 2. Are they stronger?

Two people can clean the same weight, but one can deadlift more. Are they stronger?

Someone can keep pushing the same weight for longer than another person are they stronger?

Slide 6

Improves GI transit

Increased BMR
Improved glucose metabolism
Improved blood lipid profile
Reduced blood pressure
Improved BMD
Reduction in pain from arthritis
Decreased lower back pain
Enhanced flexibility
Improved maximal aerobic capacity
Prehab

Slide 7

Research does not unequivocally support the superiority of a particular repetition range for enhancing any aspect of muscle function.

The rationale for low weights is that it recruits more motor units and teaches them to work together simultaneously. The muscle is more efficient but nor bigger. Also encourages myofibular hypertrophy.

Moderate weights allow sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. The TUT increases blood flow, causes lactate release and damages muscle fibres. High reps totals the aerobic system, but is not heavy enough to induce the changes above. However it is easier to achieve failure on moderate number of reps

Slide 8

Free weights, resistance machines, hydraulics and pneumatics

It doesn’t matter, just failure matters

Slide 9

There is no evidence for an increased benefit in strength or transferrable performance when performing unilateral exercises, or exercises on unstable equipment. There is no transferrable benefit to performing specific movements under resistance to improve performance, i.e. using a heavy bat.

Slide 11

When muscular tension is maintained, there is little difference between different tempos.  Explosive lifts do not recruit as many muscle fibres because they rely a lot on momentum.

Slow lifting technique should reduce the incidence of injury

Slide 12

Volume is the amount of reps performed during a workout, an example of a high volume session would be going for a run

Typically those looking for hypertrophy, bodybuilders, perform low intensity high volume workouts. Focussing on maintaining muscular tension and working the muscle as much as possible.

It seems from research that there is no benefit in strength or muscle growth from performing high volume workouts when intensity is controlled for effectively.

Slide 14

Intensity is commonly defined as a percentage of your 1RM.

Slide 15

Men and women have different fibre types. Generally speaking men have more powerful muscles by weight, and women have more fatigue resistant muscles.

A man and a woman performing an exercise at 80% 1RM will not be perform the same number of reps. The man will be able to do far fewer reps than the woman.

It should be defined as effort, and the only way you can have a cast iron guarantee of the level of effort is at 100%, when you can’t do another rep.

Slide 16

It was previously thought that the stimulation of strength and muscle growth was to use heavy weights as these were the only weights that would recruit the powerful muscle fibres.

However when the muscle is at failure, the entire motor pool is recruited maximally.

Slide 17

You have to be prepared to progress within your genetic limit. A good indication of this is your somatotype. If you have wide shoulders and a narrow waist then you are likely a mesomorph, you have high levels of the right hormones and life is easy.

If you have wide hips and shoulders then you are an endomorph. Your carb tolerance will be lower and assuming that your diet is on point you will gain muscle slowly.

If you are scrawny then you can gain muscle fast.