The Hard Body Manifesto

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The Hard Body Manifesto Part 1
The Integration of Diet and Supplements For Fat Loss
by Dr. John M. Berardi


Fat loss is a hot topic. Every month there are thousands of articles and dozens of new books telling people how to eat, how to exercise, and how to supplement to lose their flab. Now’s my turn.

That’s right, Mr. Massive Eating is finally going to address fat loss in a comprehensive article. Be forewarned, though. This isn’t a diet article, nor is it a "how to" article. Rather, it’s a survey of all of the things I believe are integral to the fat loss process. Use it as a resource to dig deeper into the fat loss problem and, once and for all, lose fat and keep it off!


Four Important Fat Loss Concepts

Before delving into physiology, endocrinology, metabolism and nutrition, I think it’s important to discuss four major concepts you’ll need to understand and master if you hope to change your own body composition.

Important Fat Loss Concept #1: A three-tiered, integrated approach to fat loss is always warranted yet rarely found.

Magazine articles often cover only one piece of the fat loss puzzle. One article will discuss supplements for fat loss, another will discuss diets for fat loss, and yet another will discuss exercise for fat loss. Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not dissin’ the mags. After all, the very nature of the article format is to be brief and cover one topic per article. Yet all this disjointed information can, at best, produce sub-optimal results.

For example, if you were to try to get lean by just popping a few pills, your results would be suboptimal, especially since many supplement approaches increase fat mobilization, but don’t improve fat oxidation. In other words, you can pop those fatty acids out of your adipose cells all day long, but if that fat isn’t oxidized (via an appropriate exercise plan coupled with a hypocaloric diet), those fatty acids will just be recycled — sent right back to those fat cells from whence they came.

Here’s another example of what I’m talking about. If you try to get lean by dieting only, you’re bound to see larger decreases in muscle mass than if you'd exercised appropriately during your diet phase. With losses in muscle mass come losses in basal metabolic rate (BMR), decreased exercise and non-exercise energy expenditure, and decreased exercise performance. Not exactly the recipe for long term leanness, eh?

Finally, since most exercise programs don’t have enough volume to produce fat loss, in the absence of some sort of energy manipulation (dietary changes) your body composition won’t budge much at all. If you don’t have time (or the recovery resources) to train for a few hours a day, good luck getting lean while still eating Krispy Kreme!

So in the end, it’s only in the integration of diet, training and supplements that the most effective fat loss can occur.

Important Fat Loss Concept #2: The body is an integrated unit, so a comprehensive approach is necessary.

The body is an integrated unit — no system acts independent of the others. As a result, attempting to get lean by micromanaging one body system almost always leads to overcompensation of other body systems and sometimes even metabolic crisis (like health problems and rebound fat gain).

For example, the use of adrenergic supplements (ephedrine, caffeine, clenbuterol) can increase cortisol, reduce glucose tolerance/insulin sensitivity, and decrease leptin. In the short term, you’ll still lose fat because adrenergic stimulation is pretty powerful. However, in the long term, there's rebound fat gain once energy restriction, increased energy expenditure, or adrenergic supplementation is removed.

Why doesn’t your body better cooperate? Well, your bod likes homeostasis more than it likes visible abs. When you try to manipulate one system to outsmart it, another system kicks in to negate the effects of your first manipulation, or at least it waits in the wings, silently, ready to later correct what you’ve done. Riding up and down on that fat loss roller coaster sure does make it hard to remain lean in the long term.

So let’s talk integration. Here’s a diagram showing just how integrated many of the systems of the body really are:



*This slide is adapted from a slide presented by Dr. Rob Rakowski in 2004.

As you can see, this slide shows us that almost all of the hormonal systems of the body are interrelated in some way. Check out how just one hormone (cortisol) can impact the sex hormone systems, thyroid hormone action, insulin and glucose tolerance, and several other endpoints related to physiological and psychological well-being. Since hormones are the messengers communicating with the cells of the body, orchestrating fat loss or fat gain, it’s no wonder they’ve become the target of many drug and supplement strategies.

But it’s important not to get too bogged down with hormonal manipulations. Like I said, the body doesn’t like when we mess around with a single system or two. Besides, in the end, when we’re talking fat loss, the hormones don’t matter as much as their net results do. After all, hormones themselves don’t make us fat or lean; it’s the effects of these hormones that make the difference. So let’s talk effects.

When on a hypocaloric (lower calorie) diet, the following three endpoints are likely.

Endpoint 1 — Reductions in energy expenditure (exercise and non-exercise)

Endpoint 2 — Reductions in muscle mass

Endpoint 3 — Increases in appetite

Since these three things are hormonally mediated, we can either try to mess with the hormones (not always a good idea, as addressed above) or we can try to improve the endpoints by attempting to maintain daily energy expenditure, maintain muscle mass, and avoid increases in energy intake.

Therefore, next time you enter into a diet phase, ask yourself — does my fat loss program…

1) Maintain pre-diet energy expenditure?

This is accomplished via increased exercise metabolic activity (more cardio, ugh), increased non-exercise metabolic activity (walk instead of drive, pace when talking on the phone rather than sit, chew gum, drink cold water, etc.), and increased cost of exercise and non-exercise activity (i.e. wearing a weighted vest while doing cardio, walking, or doing chores).

2) Incorporate exercise designed to preserve muscle?

This is accomplished via more intense, heavier training sessions with lots of muscle specific and CNS specific recovery in between sessions.

3) Manipulate energy intake, food timing and food type to retain a high-energy expenditure and preserve muscle mass?

This is accomplished via optimizing energy intake, periodic re-feeds, carbohydrates during and immediately after exercise, increased protein intake, healthy fat balance, etc.

4) Help organize my lifestyle such that I can easily support an energy restriction in the face of increasing hunger?

This is accomplished via smart shopping, eliminating tempting, tasty morsels from your home, planning for the unplanned so you’re not missing meals and getting ravenously hungry, eating frequently and drinking more water.

When dieting, be conscious of these questions. In doing so you’ll be better able to plan for the metabolic mayhem ahead.

Important Fat Loss Concept #3: Focus on optimal health, body composition and exercise performance, plus formation of lasting habits.

Good nutrition programs achieve the intersection of optimal health, optimal body composition, and optimal exercise performance. What do I mean by "the intersection?" Well, check out this diagram below:



Stick around long enough and you’ll see all sorts of nutrition programs. You’ll find programs that help you improve your health, yet these very same programs will do nothing to improve body composition and/or exercise performance (these plans would be located in the "A" domain above).

In addition, you’ll find programs that improve body composition yet don’t optimize health and/or exercise performance (the "B" domain above). Finally, you’ll find programs that help with exercise performance yet don’t optimize health and/or body composition (the "C" domain).

Regardless of which of the three programs you select, none of them are going to be optimal. When looking for the zone of optimization ("D"), you’ve gotta find a plan that intersects the three goals. A proper nutritional plan will get you there (more on that below.)

Important Fat Loss Concept #4: Ultimate success has little to do with the plan itself but rather its application. In most cases, it’s not about the food.

Recently, I published a two-part article here at T-Nation describing how the limiting factor in most trainees’ physique progress is their inability to plan for the unplanned — their inability to continue to follow their well-thought out plan in the face of unexpected daily challenges at home and on the road.

This article series is called It’s Not About The Food and in it I describe how you can take lessons from superhero Lance Armstrong in order to win your own nutritional Tour de France. The point is this: there’s more to physique progress beyond your original meal plan itself. You’ll find a few examples of this below.


Fat Metabolism

The next stop on our road to leanness is a brief explanation of fat storage, transport and metabolism. Since this article isn’t designed to present an in-depth analysis of fat metabolism, I’m not going to make your eyes go cross with detailed biochemical explanations. Instead, I’m simply going to give you a quick glimpse into this area with a few neat pictures.

In this first image, I’d like to draw your attention to the two major sites of fat storage we’re interested in today: adipocytes (fat cells) and skeletal muscle.



It’s important to note that these two sites represent two major sources of fat for oxidization or "burning." The other major source of fat for oxidation is dietary fat.

Dietary fat is "burnt" when dietary triacylglycerols are broken down into fatty acids and these fatty acids are transported (bound to a blood carrier protein called albumin) to the muscle cells. Once there, they enter into an organelle called the mitochondrion and undergo a process called beta oxidation. Beta oxidation is what we call "fat burning."

In addition to dietary fat, skeletal muscle triacylglycerols can also be broken down into fatty acids. These fatty acids simply work their way through the muscle to undergo that same process of beta oxidation described above.

Finally, adipocytes or fat cells, can release fatty acids which travel through the bloodstream (again, bound to albumin) and, similar to dietary fat, enter the muscle cells, enter the mitochondrion, and are incinerated via beta oxidation. Since it’s the fat in our adipocytes that we want to burn in order to get leaner, let’s quickly review how that process happens:



Notice above that certain hormonal signals affect different parts of the fat breakdown process, telling the fat cell to accelerate the breakdown of triacylglycerols into fatty acids or to slow down this process.

Regardless of these hormonal signals, once these fatty acids are broken down they can travel into the bloodstream. This process of removing fatty acids from adipocytes, pictured above, is what we call fat mobilization.

As discussed, the fatty acids released during fat mobilization enter the bloodstream, and their fate depends on a number of factors, including activity level and a number of other hormonal influences. Some fat is burned at the muscle level via beta oxidation while other fat can be recycled back into adipose cells.

Hopefully now you’ll understand what I mean when I say that some interventions can mobilize fat (like adrenergic supplements and drugs), but don’t necessarily improve fat oxidation. Maximal oxidation is contingent upon both maximal mobilization and maximal metabolic activity (to oxidize those mobilized fats).


Energy Balance

One major factor involved in improving fat mobilization from fat cells and the eventual oxidation of that fat, is achieving a negative energy balance. In other words, you need to decrease your energy intake, increase your exercise expenditure, or find some combination of energy intake and energy expenditure that'll allow your body to draw on your stored fat as an energy source.

While this process seems like a no-brainer — just eat less than you’re eating now or work out more than you are now and you’ll drop fat — I’ve seen case study after case study illustrating that if someone is at a body fat stalemate (especially when this stalemate is at a low energy intake), sa reduction in energy intake is sometimes the wrong approach!

Sometimes an increase in energy intake (coupled with a change in food choices and nutrient timing) can lead to rapid fat loss. Take for example, an elite female athlete I consulted with back in 2002. Check out her before and after stats: (See Chart Following next statement!)

That’s right, in the face of a 1500 kcal increase in energy intake (along with some big shifts in food type and timing), she dropped 23 pounds of fat in 12 weeks!

But be careful — it’s not always true that an increase in energy intake will lead to fat loss. This will only work when a client is undereating relative to their actual metabolic requirement (based on activity levels, muscle mass, genetic makeup, etc). Deciding if this is the case is based on dozens of factors.

In the end, while it’s easy to tell those trying to lose fat to simply eat less or exercise more, the story is much more complex than that. The traditional picture of energy balance is missing one key facet: the fact that energy intake and expenditure are tightly inter-related. Without understanding this relationship, some erroneous conclusions are regularly drawn by dieters and nutritionists, conclusions that prevent improved body composition.

Next week, in Part 2, I’ll cover how much, what, and when to eat.


About the Author
Dr. John M. Berardi is one of the world's foremost experts in the field of human performance and nutrition. John is a prolific author, a sought-after speaker and a consultant to Olympic, professional and elite athletes, as well as executives and recreational weightlifters serious about achieving optimal results. For more information about John, his team, and the services he offers, visit www.johnberardi.com.

© 1998 — 2004 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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The Hard Body Manifesto Part 2
The Integration of Diet and Supplements For Fat Loss
by Dr. John M. Berardi


Fat loss is a hot topic. Every month there are thousands of articles and dozens of new books telling people how to eat, how to exercise, and how to supplement to lose their flab. Now’s my turn.

Part 1 of this article featured a discussion of four important concepts of fat loss, along with a short primer on fat metabolism and energy balance. Now that we’ve discussed all the theory, let’s discuss how we apply that theory.


How Much, What and When To Eat

Understanding that energy restriction sometimes increases metabolic efficiency (this is bad for fat loss) and decreases both exercise and non-exercise energy expenditure (again, not good), it’s important to find ways to get the metabolic rate back up again.

Certainly, increasing your exercise expenditure is one way. Another is to properly choose your energy intake, your food selections, and the times you eat. In doing so, you’ll be better able to "uncouple" the energy intake and expenditure sides of the energy balance equation in order to improve your fat loss profile.

So how much do you need to eat? In order to determine this, you need to first figure out how much you’re currently eating. The best way to do this is to record everything you eat (types of foods and weights/volumes of the foods) for three representative days of the week. For example, if your Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays have a specific schedule, your Tuesdays and Thursdays have a specific schedule, and your Saturdays and Sundays have a specific schedule, pick a Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday to record. (If all days are the same, just record any three days.)

Once you’ve recorded your intake, download the USDA’s free calorie calculator program to figure out your total energy intake and macronutrient breakdown. You can download this program by clicking here. Once you know how much you’re eating, it’s important to calculate how far from your approximate energy needs you currently are. You can calculate those by clicking here.

Chances are there will be some discrepancy between the two. The calorie calculator suggested in the link above usually gives a number higher than most people are eating. In some cases, much higher. Whether this number is correct or not is impossible to determine. However, the number you’ll get is derived from a study published in 1999 by A. DeLorenzo and colleagues at the University of Rome. These scientists directly measured the RMR of a group of 51 male athletes and determined that this equation predicted the RMR to within 59 kcal.

In addition to the men in the DeLorenzo study, this equation has also been validated in female athletes. In 1996, J. Thompson and colleagues at the University of North Carolina measured the RMR of 24 athletic men and 13 athletic women and determined that the equation was accurate to within 158 kcal for men and 103 kcal for women. These studies clearly show that this equation is accurate for use in athletic populations that exercise regularly.

Yet, any calorie estimation measure is just that — an estimation. So here’s the best course of action: use my outcome-based decision model to try to get your calorie intake up to the level specified on the calculator, using of course, my food type and timing suggestions below. This should help you "reset" your metabolic rate, getting it to an all time maximum. Then you can start to slowly apply the old "eat less/exercise more" program.

Here’s how to do it. Basically, you need to follow your plan for two week blocks and assess where you’re at every 14 days. If the plan is producing a desired effect, keep it up. If the plan is producing a negative effect, you’ve gotta make a change.



If fat loss is your goal and you're significantly under-eating, simply increase your energy intake by 250kcal/day for two weeks at a time until you get to your suggested energy intake. Then, once you get to this point, begin to scale back your intake by 250kcal/day for two weeks at a time.

Again, you’ll be using the outcome based strategies above in order to measure whether your manipulation is taking you in the right direction or not. The beautiful part of this outcome based strategy is that you never have to abandon it. Simply adjust energy intake up or down based on the measurable changes you’re recording.

So what about food type and timing? Well, both things are well-addressed in my 7 Habits article. In this article I lay out seven feeding strategies that, if followed consistently, produce the intersection of optimal health, body composition and exercise performance. Here's a review:

Habit #1: Eat every 2-3 hours (6-8 meals per day).

Habit #2: Eat complete protein with each meal (30-60 grams per meal).

Habit #3: Eat veggies (2-3 servings) and/or fruits (0-2 servings) with every meal.

Habit #4: Eat a mix of fats each day (~1/3 from sat., ~1/3 from mono., ~1/3 from poly.)

Habit #5: Eat non-fruit and veggie carbohydrate (liquid carbs and/or starchy carbs like pastas, rice, whole grain breads, oats, etc.) only within the first few hours after exercise.

Habit #6: Drink calorie-free beverages with or between each meal. Green tea and water should make up the majority of your fluid intake (excluding protein/nutrition shakes).

Habit #7: Eat whole foods for most meals (except workout and immediate post-workout drinks) unless impossible, then use supplements (shakes and bars) when necessary.

If you follow these seven suggestions, most of your food selection and nutrient timing needs will be taken care of. If you need an even simpler version, here’s how I like to break down optimal nutrient timing:

• During and after the workout — Feed according to ADA (American Dietetics Association) guidelines with a little extra protein thrown in.

• For the first few hours after the workout — Feed according to the Zone principles (a balance intake of protein, fats and low GI carbs. I like fruit and veggie carbs at this time).

• For the rest of the day — Feed according to the Atkins principles (mostly protein and fat with some fibrous veggie carbs).

Now, just to clarify one thing: sometimes my approaches are criticized as too technical and complex. This assertion belies a fundamental misunderstanding of my system. Yes, I do demand some adherence to the scientific method. I won’t apologize for that. Yet, at the same time, once you progress beyond the beginner stages of understanding, you’ll see that a mastery of calorie calculations and macronutrient proportions and ratios takes no time at all.

Someone observing a beginner trying to follow my system — adding precisely 250kcal here, subtracting exactly 250kcal there — would think I’ve made the system too complex. However, someone observing an advanced participant in my system would think they’re not even following it.

The reason? Outcome based measurement and decision making, meal planning and nutrient timing, once internalized, are easy to adhere to and can be calculated almost at the subconscious level once you understand the system. Eventually you’ll easily be able to add a bit of food or subtract a bit based on how your body is changing. In some cases, all you’ll need to do is look in the mirror to note these changes.

Here’s another way to make it easy for you beginners: if you’re a relative nutritional novice, don’t even bother with the calorie calculations above. Seriously! Rather, simply begin following the seven habits. This shift alone will start you off in the right direction, kicking off your fat loss process in a big way.

However, if you’ve been dieting for a while now or have dieted several times in the past (successfully), you can start to break it down a bit more scientifically as above.


Essential Supplements For Fat Loss

Once the dietary guidelines above are met, I consider the next four supplements essential for fat loss.

1) Fish oil — Data from the University of Western Ontario shows that fish oil supplementation increases lean body mass (during non-dieting conditions), increases BMR (by up to 400kcal/day), decreases inflammation, and improves the ratio of fat/carb oxidized (sparing carbs, burning fat). Recommended dose: start with 6-10g per day of total fish oil (assuming 30% EPA and DHA).

2) Creatine — While creatine is usually considered a muscle building supplement, it does a good job of maintaining cellular energy status. This may help preserve/increase muscle mass. It also will preserve/increase exercise performance. Recommended dose: a few grams per day (3-5g) go a long way.

3) Recovery Nutrition — Supplements (or even whole food) containing carbohydrate and protein and given during and/or after exercise can improve carbohydrate status (muscle glycogen storage), improve protein status (keep protein synthetic rates high), suppress cortisol concentrations, preserve immune function, and help preserve exercise performance.

Even if you don’t ingest as much as you would during a mass phase, every little bit helps. Recommended dose: This is based on total calorie intake, however, a reasonable minimum is 0.4g/kg carbohydrate and 0.2g/kg protein during and/or after exercise.

4) Protein powder and greens powders — While I don’t think these are necessary for every day nutrition, these two supplements are great in case of emergencies — especially when on the road. Normally my clients may only ingest one to two scoops per day of a protein supplement along with one scoop of a greens powder.

Some of you may notice the conspicuous absence of fat burners. The main reason for excluding them from this discussion is the fact that I believe that they're most useful at the lower extremes of body fat, when intelligent diet and exercise are failing to produce a consistent loss of fat.

It’s Not About The Food

Remember, it’s not necessarily the lack a good plan or the absence of some special physiological secret that keeps most people fat; it’s failing to plan for the unplanned. Do you have a plan for when you wake up late or have to work late? Do you have a plan for unexpected obligations and deadlines; for unplanned dinner parties or lunch dates; for emergencies of any type? If you don’t, that’s probably why you’re not as lean as you’d like to be!

Here are a few strategies that can help you ensure that good foods will be available when you need them:

1) The Sunday Ritual — The Sunday Ritual is performed by setting aside three hours or so every Sunday to write out your menu for the week, shop for the week, and prepare your meals for the week.

Cook all the meat, chop all the vegetables, measure out all the yogurt and/or cottage cheese, and distribute all the powders. Have them ready and set aside so that you can grab them in the morning and bring them with you regardless of what your day or your boss holds in store for you.

2) The Breakfast Ritual — Rather than preparing all their food for the week on a single day, some people prefer to do a little food preparation each day. That’s what the Breakfast Ritual is for.

Using the Breakfast Ritual, simply perform all your cooking for the day each morning. Since you’ve gotta make breakfast anyway, make sure you’ve got a couple of meals going while breakfast is being prepared.

3) Have Others Cook For You — If you love the idea of having five or six readymade meals always available yet can’t see yourself using the rituals above or buying all that Tupperware, there are a number of options at your disposal.

First, you can hire commercial food preparation services to do all the cooking for you. Or you could pick four restaurants in your immediate area (two fast food places, one medium-priced restaurant, and one higher priced restaurant) that prepare meals in a way that conforms to your nutritional plan and have them prepare the food for you when necessary.


Wrap Up

In the end, successful fat loss programs are based on having a good understanding of the body, making good physiological choices based on that understanding, and having the right systems in place to sustain those choices. Individual articles on specific supplements, specific diet plans, or specific workouts are interesting, no doubt, but integrate the three to truly optimize your body composition.

Note: A shout out to Dr. Lonnie Lowery for sharing the images in this article with me. He’s a web illustration master and his "eye candy" is always appreciated!


About the Author
Dr. John M. Berardi is one of the world's foremost experts in the field of human performance and nutrition. John is a prolific author, a sought-after speaker and a consultant to Olympic, professional and elite athletes, as well as executives and recreational weightlifters serious about achieving optimal results. For more information about John, his team, and the services he offers, visit www.johnberardi.com.

© 1998 — 2004 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

{Edited by me for content, re: advertising etc ;) }