Clyde, I've made no progress on my fat-loss goal; in fact I seem to have regressed a bit. I'm struggling with eating too much some days, packing it in late at night. The salad thing seems to work for 4-5 hours, but the calorie deficit tends to result in a rebound hunger that isn't working for me. It's harder than I thought. I guess I just need to really focus on eating habits, as controlling hunger once it's there isn't easy. BTW in spite of that weight gain, my performane during that time was as good as it had been for a long time. Cutting out those extra fats seems to degrade my performance, so the balance is going to be tricky. Lloyd
ANSWER: Stress is a neuroendocrine response that generates a hormonal balance, including increased cortisol, that causes increased body fat. When the body is in the starved state (either low blood sugar or low blood amino acid concentration), the body perceives this as stress and releases cortisol. Exercise is also a "stress state" that results in cortisol release. When exercise is done without proper nutrition before, during and afterwards, cortisol goes up from the double whammy of the training and the starvation. Studies with athletes have shown that listening to soothing music or ocean waves on tape reduces cortisol levels significantly (by as much as a third), as does avoiding the starved state, so weight loss and gain during intensive training is more complex than having a salad to reduce hunger and caloric intake. In my opinion, if an athlete were only going to do ONE thing to reduce body fat during intensive training it would be one huge salad with many different vegetables on top of the spinach and mixed greens about 2 hours after training (i.e. after digestion of the calories consumed during the recovery window is complete). However, to really drive down body fat, vegetables would be included in every meal that is not in the 2 hours before or after training (even for breakfast unless it comes just before training!) and we would be listening to birds chirp (outside our window or on tape) while we ate it. During training and the 2 hours before and after training, we would skip the vebetables entirely but pace the calories coming in so that we are fueling only muscles (not fat). Vegetables increase bulk in the stomach with relatively few calories so that we only eat the amount of fats, protein and "carbs" (starches and fruit) that our body needs AND so that more of the calories we are eating goes to muscle. But what helps us most of the time (the fibrous bulk of vegetables) hurts us during training itself since it causes gastrointestinal distress. This is why vegetables are eliminated in the couple hours before and after as well as during training. However, during those times we must consume calories piece meal so that their entry into our bloodstream is slower. When we don't have vegetables to do the slowing down for us, we have to use our own hands to deliver the fuel more slowly. Once an athlete is able to eat regular food again (i.e. after they have rehydrated so that blood flow to the intestine is back to normal and intestinal function is normal), vegetables should be part of every feeding, including snacks. Even just a mouthfull of spinach will increase the muscle fueling of (and reduce the body fat from) a snack of crackers with nut butter. Once you get used to it, grabbing some vegetable becomes habitual, and it does work. ALSO consider that simply eating more fats (you say that eating less fats results in poorer performance) does NOT mean you are getting enough of all TYPES of fats that your body needs: SEE MY THREAD ON DIETARY FATS where I describe the amounts you need. The alternative to vegetable intake and paying attention to the spectrum of foods (such as fats) in your diet is to lose weight at the expense of recovery and health, meaning you are forced to choose between higher body fat levels or higher performance, but can't achieve both at the same time. The highest levels of training stress the human body more than it is designed to easily accomodate; to truly succeed and lose weight in the process requires using all the tools at our disposal. Get a CD of ocean waves, and don't grit your teeth while listening to it.
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