http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/898535578/share/0?lang=English&t=1442308332036
Data from my first run. A steep up mainly on a rock staircase followed by a zig-zag ramp down.
I went from the village to the white tower above it.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
On holiday :)
I may post a thought or two from the Austrian Alps…
Or maybe some heart rate data from a mountain run!
A confusion of criticism… a whirlpool of invective.
On the basis that I often point to articles that agree with my thinking and experience, I think it’s right that I also, sometimes, point to articles that don’t.
The Guardian newspaper has been having an odd week so far. After getting excited about the latest (pretty horrific but nothing new) statistics on diabetes in th UK, it has been publishing some pretty ropey nutritional advice followed by a suggested weekly menu from the British Dietetic Association, that was advocating eating from a specific fast food restaurant chain. What’s that about?
Then to top it off, this evening, the Guardian published this.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/18/paleo-diet-critics-science
I don’t know what is upsetting the author, but somewhere along the way, something bad related to paleo must have happened to him. Anyway, have a read and see what you think.
I am disappointed that he belittles the Primal Blueprint certification without knowing anything about it. Disappointed but not surprised…. maybe it’s the same journalist that got to page 3 of the SACN report on carbohydrates ( see July 22).
Never mind. There’s room on the planet for us all. 🙂
Physician, heal thyself…
With a hat tip to The Diet Doctor, an article from The New York Times about how Coca Cola is funding exercise programmes in the U.S.
Not a bad thing in itself, provided that exercise programmes is what they actually are, but there seems to be more to it than that from what the article says (and it’s a long article). I suggest you read it all but here are some snippets:
“The beverage giant has teamed up with influential scientists who are advancing this message in medical journals, at conferences and through social media. To help the scientists get the word out, Coke has provided financial and logistical support to a new nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network, which promotes the argument that weight-conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink while not paying enough attention to exercise.
“Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, ‘Oh they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’ — blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on,” the group’s vice president, Steven N. Blair, an exercise scientist, says in a recent video announcing the new organization. “And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.””
Hmmm… Now paying attention to exercise is a good thing but is ignoring what you are putting in your mouth also a good idea? The article doesn’t say who the “health experts” it refers to are but I tend to agree with them:
“Health experts say this message is misleading and part of an effort by Coke to deflect criticism about the role sugary drinks have played in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. They contend that the company is using the new group to convince the public that physical activity can offset a bad diet despite evidence that exercise has only minimal impact on weight compared with what people consume.”
For primal people and particularly Blueprinters like me, we have known for a long time that exercise alone is ineffective for weight management unless coupled with a healthy diet, adequate sleep of good quality and sufficient sunlight. You simply cannot out-run a bad diet.
So my question to the scientists that are pushing this message is simply this:
Given a 330ml standard can of Coke contains 35 grams of sugar (!) which equates to 140 calories – and that’s 140 calories that provide no nutritional benefit to you whatsoever – why on earth do you want to take those calories into your body if you are then going to have to exercise them off before you even begin to think about burning off some body fat? It’s simply making it harder on yourself!
But who are these scientists that say the way to lose weight is to increase your exercise? Here they are…
Three scientists who helped start the new nonprofit supported by Coke, from left: Steven N. Blair, a professor in the department of exercise science, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of South Carolina; James O. Hill, a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine; and Gregory A. Hand, dean of the West Virginia University School of Public Health.Credit University of Colorado, West Virginia University.
If you want to take weight loss advice of any of these guys, be my guest.
Ancel Keys study that purported to show saturated fats being detrimental to health trashed… yet again…
Another day and another study into saturated fats in the diet debunks Ancel Keys’s seminal, but fatally flawed, report that linked saturated fats with heart disease. See previous post about John Yudkin who first debunked this study by Ancel Keys in the 1970s.
This one, 40 years later, is from Doctor Russell de Souza, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, at McMaster University in Canada.
“The “vilification” of saturated fats dates back to the 1950s when research suggested a link between high dietary saturated fat intake and deaths from heart disease.
But the study author drew his conclusions on data from six countries, choosing to ignore the data from a further 16, which did not fit with his hypothesis, and which subsequent analysis of all 22 countries’ data.
Nevertheless the research stuck and since the 1970s most public health organisations have advised people to cut down on fat.
However the new research found no clear association between higher intake of saturated fats and death for any reason, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, ischemic stroke or type 2 diabetes.”
I find it interesting but not surprising that the comment on the report from the British dietician amount to saying that we should not change what we are eating because this report does not prove cause and effect between eating fat and NOT getting heart disease…. Eh? I would like to see the study that could do that. In any case, did the Ancel Keys study prove there WAS a link?
Most emphatically not.
Some recipes for using butter at the end of the article too.
Is one minute of high-intensity exercise really enough to get fit?
Whole 10 Completed
My Whole10 plus intermittent fasting (otherwise known as skipping breakfast) finished last night although I am expecting my weight to continue to drop for probably another 48 hours. Let’s see.
My reflections are that mainly that I didn’t notice much difference overall. I slept a bit better and woke up more easily in the morning. I was hungry by the time my evening meal came around and most evenings I ate earlier than my usual 8pm by up to an hour. My fasted work outs were not an issue with sprint patterns, LISS, resistance and flexibility all feeling slightly better and more enjoyable. My machine chest press is back to a 5 rep max of 105kg so I don’t think I have lost muscle.
My weight was 12 stone 8lbs(176lbs, 80kg) this morning down from 13 stone (182lbs, 82.7kg) ten days ago. That compares well to my usual non-intermittent fasted Whole30 I do in January in a third of the time. Also I went down a notch on my belt, which is about an inch and my clothes are noticeably looser, particularly my trousers.
In terms of food, breakfast was coffee, black and fairly strong. Lunch was 100g of protein if some sort (usually leftovers) and 100g of sauerkraut.
Dinner was simply a Whole30 compliant meal. Last night was lamb chops, avocado and salad.
Overall, pretty successful and not overly challenging. However a word of warning… I DO NOT suggest doing this unless you are already fat/keto adapted. You need to rapidly raise your fat burning to accommodate the IF and fasted work outs and if your body is not able to do that it will just go into “starvation mode”.
Update
The Whole 10 experiment continues with everything in my life remaining as it was and just the diet changing. I am four days in now and had a great work out yesterday. I was pleased to discover yesterday that after a few weeks of a strange pain free “injury” which lost me 30kg off my machine chest press, almost entirely on my right side, I am back to within 5kg of my 5 rep max of 105kg which indicates to me that my body is still building muscle rather than tearing it down for gluconeogenesis.
Ketosis is fully established now as shown by my ketostix. I am not eating a huge amount of fat.
After 4 days my weight is 4lbs down on the start of the 10 and 5lbs down on where it was a week ago today. I sincerely doubt it will continue at a pound a day and most of the 4lbs is probably water but we will see. 6 days to go.
Carbohydrates and Health – the SACN report.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition’s report on Carbohydrates and Health was published last Friday.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sacn-carbohydrates-and-health-report
It’s 384 pages long so not for the faint-hearted. The most news-worthy thing so far seems to be that the excessive consumption of sweetened drinks contibutes to type 2 diabetes…
Maybe the journalist had only got to page 2 of the report when they wrote the article 😉
I will have a look and see if there is anything more interesting to report. Anyway my n=1 experiment with a Whole 10 continues. I have been in fairly strong ketosis for the 48 hours that I have been “Whole10-ing” with no obvious effects except I am hot (as in temperature!) but that could be the weather. 1lb off in 48 hours.
PS An update after 5 minutes. My apologies to the journalist, it’s not on page 2 it’s on page 3…
A Whole 10.
The first day of a Whole 10 over and apart from sleeping like a log (no alcohol last night?) and being a pound lighter (probably caused by dehydration after leading two back to back HIIT classes at the gym last night) I don’t feel any different from usual.
Along with the Whole 10 auto-immune exclusion diet I am also intermittently fasting between my evening meal and lunch. I hope to strip out some fat from some stubborn areas. We will see how things develop.
I don’t expect to get “hangry” as I don’t often feel hungry and I think I have pretty good blood glucose control by now but here is an interesting article from the Independent this morning on the mechanism that appears to associate hunger with anger of relative severities. Something of which I think diabetic people are well aware.
So, just for the record, starting weight was almost exactly 13 stone (182lbs, 82.7kg) which is a few pounds heavier than usual for me. We will see what is achievable in 10 days.
If you are not sure what the Whole 10 (or 30) is, follow the Dallas and Melissa Hartwig link at the side.
LivPrimal 