Insulin management is all the rage these days and probably with good cause.
As the world finds out more and more about how the body works, it's becoming more and more obvious that the pseudo-science that has prevailed in the fitness industry is getting more and more outdated.
As I read more and more scientific studies and more and more collated works by some knowledgeable people, I have come into a greater understanding of how hormones play a vital part in anyone's fitness goals.
Whether it's to lose fat, build muscle, get stronger or all 3 at once, it's your hormones that play the vital role in either hindering your success or getting you there with maximum efficiency.
I'll give you some of the major players and a simple run down of what they do. If you're interested in this stuff, I'd suggest you look into them in more detail and check how they work with regards to each other.
Testosterone - Builds muscle mass and strength and helps strengthen bone tissue. Increases sex drive and makes your boner harder (For men only obviously).
Oestrogen - Healthy levels are used to regulate sexual function...excess is anabolic (Builds) for fat cells.
Cortisol - The double edged sword. Catabolic (Destroys) fat and muscle tissues under different hormonal circumstances.
Insulin - The Anabolic Super Soaker. Anabolic for fat and muscle tissue.
GH - Growth Hormone - Has an amazing array of benefits. Immune health, cellular regeneration and promoting lipolysis (destruction of fat for energy) to name a few.
There are plenty of others but regulating these 5 by manipulating your macro nutrient intake (The types of nutrients your foods are made up of...namely fat, protein and carbohydrate) and the timing of that intake, will allow you to maximise and minimize the effects of these on your body. Resistance training is also a VITAL tool in manipulating these hormones.
I'm not going to expound the benefits of resistance training in this post as it would take far too long, we'll save that for another day.
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Monday, 22 April 2013
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Fat is not your enemy.
Let's just clear the air for a second here...
You don't need carbs to survive.
I'll let that sink in for a second.
.
.
.
.
.
I know what you're thinking. "But Ash, the worlds told me forever that I need pasta and bread and that's fuel for my body to live".
It's not true and it has been proven countless times in countless studies that the human body does not NEED carbs in order to function properly. I stress the word NEED because it certainly does WANT them. It's actually the bodies preferred form of fuel but your body is smart and can create glycogen (The resultant molecule that your body uses as fuel for muscles and such..) from fat and protein.
As a matter of fact, once your body enters ketosis, the process of creating ketones from fat for energy, your body is actually MORE efficient in its processes. After the initial period of low carb in which your blood brain barrier makes a whole bunch of new pathways for ketones to flow, you will find you will think more clearly than you ever have before.
This is where fat comes in. By upping the amount of fats we eat and cutting out carbs, you super charge the ketosis process while dropping body fat.
As you will see in the article, assuming you actually get through it, we used to eat a lot of healthy fats in our diet and none of the problems we associate with a high fat diet were actually in existence. It's only since the advent of refined sugar and cheap sugar substitutes like High Fructose Corn Syrup, that these major health epidemics have actually become a problem.
Read it, absorb it, think about it and feel free to comment below on your thoughts.
http://www.dietheartpublishing.com/diet-heart-timeline
Do yourself a favour and put down the pasta bake and grab a handful of nuts.
You don't need carbs to survive.
I'll let that sink in for a second.
.
.
.
.
.
I know what you're thinking. "But Ash, the worlds told me forever that I need pasta and bread and that's fuel for my body to live".
It's not true and it has been proven countless times in countless studies that the human body does not NEED carbs in order to function properly. I stress the word NEED because it certainly does WANT them. It's actually the bodies preferred form of fuel but your body is smart and can create glycogen (The resultant molecule that your body uses as fuel for muscles and such..) from fat and protein.
As a matter of fact, once your body enters ketosis, the process of creating ketones from fat for energy, your body is actually MORE efficient in its processes. After the initial period of low carb in which your blood brain barrier makes a whole bunch of new pathways for ketones to flow, you will find you will think more clearly than you ever have before.
This is where fat comes in. By upping the amount of fats we eat and cutting out carbs, you super charge the ketosis process while dropping body fat.
As you will see in the article, assuming you actually get through it, we used to eat a lot of healthy fats in our diet and none of the problems we associate with a high fat diet were actually in existence. It's only since the advent of refined sugar and cheap sugar substitutes like High Fructose Corn Syrup, that these major health epidemics have actually become a problem.
Read it, absorb it, think about it and feel free to comment below on your thoughts.
http://www.dietheartpublishing.com/diet-heart-timeline
Do yourself a favour and put down the pasta bake and grab a handful of nuts.
A more constructive and interesting Blog.
As the select few of you know this Blog was documenting my journey through changing my body. Unfortunately the way I was doing it was only of real interest to myself. I've decided to get rid of all that crap and start again but with more interesting pieces about fitness in general and less about me. Let's see how we go this time.
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