I don’t usually use Answer Fitness for personal appeals, but today I’m going to make an exception.

Right now at Tweet for ALS there are a group of about 10 volunteers running a 10 hour “Tweet-a-Thon” to raise $10,000 for ALS, otherwise known as “Lou Gehrig’sDisease.” And I’m one of those volunteers.

The Mission: Social Media for Social Good, One Dollar at a Time

This isn’t your usual fundraiser: We’re trying to demonstrate the power of social media to do social good and help strike a blow to a terrible, fatal disease. While some people are donating $5, $10, or even $100 dollars, what we really hope to accomplish is to use social media and social networks to hit our goal in small, affordable, individual $1 donations from thousands of people.  This also known as “micro-” or “long tail” charity. The idea is to allow people to pool very small donations into something much more powerful than what they would be able to do individually with limited budgets and resources.

What Is ALS?

If you don’t know much about ALS, here’s the gist:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death.

When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

There is no cure and no treatment. ALS is a death sentence.

How You Can Help Us

Social media, blogs and sites like Facebook are ideal for encouraging “long tail” charity giving, because they allow people to spread the word quickly through their own networks. I’m asking Answer Fitness readers today to help us hit our goal by either donating $1 to Tweetforals.com or writing about it on your own blog, posting a retweet to us on Twitter, writing about it on your Facebook wall, or all of the above. Word of mouth is critical for us. It’s such a simple thing to do, and it could have a huge impact.

You can also follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tweetforals

So take a few minutes to visit our site, follow us, and hopefull either spread the word or give just a buck. A dollar is something we can all afford.

If you want some quick ideas on how to help us promote it, check out this page: http://www.tweetforals.com/spread-the-word

Thanks for your support. So far we’ve exceeded $3,000 dollars, so just a few thousand $1 donations would put us in striking range of our goal.

Matt

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What Is Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) And Where Does This Mysterious Vegetable Protein Come From? We Unlock The Secrets of This Common High-Protein Food Ingredient

Dear Fitness Nerd,

I’ve been reading ingredient labels a lot more lately and trying to eat cleaner and healthier. I’ve come across something a number of times called “textured vegetable protein.” What is textured vegetable protein? What is it made out of (I assume vegetables) and is it considered a clean eating food? Thanks for your help! — Karen (St. Louis, MO)

You’re right, textured vegetable protein, also known as TVP or “textured soy protein“, is a fairly common ingredient in all kinds of pre-prepared foods and mixes — especially meatless or vegetarian foods. While you’ll typically see textured vegetable protein in a list with other ingredients, you can purchase the stuff in bulk on its own at health food stores.

What Exactly Is Textured Vegetable Protein and Where Does TVP Come From?

Textured vegetable protein is generally used as either a meat substitute or meat extender. It’s actually not made out of vegetables like carrots, broccoli or corn, but from soybeans. So technically, the term “textured soy protein” more accurately describes TVP.

Textured vegetable protein is made out of defatted soybean flour, which is a bi-product of the process of making soybean oil. The defatted soybean flour is mixed with water and formed into a dough, and then pushed through an “extruder” where it is heated and emerges as a spongy, fibrous food.

The TVP is then sliced into different size and shapes depending on what type of meat it’s intended to substitute for.

Textured vegetable protein is very versatile in terms of shaping and texturizing, so it can be cut in a way that produces a texture and characteristics that mimic of a number of cuts of meat, include ground beef, bacon or beef strips, steaks, cubes, chunks and even flakes or granules.

Textured vegetable protein, not surprisingly, is very high in protein, low in fat and relatively low in carboydrates.  It is also considered one of the few non-animal based sources of complete proteins.

The actual protein content of TVP depends on the type of soy flour used to produce it. When made from standard soy flour, it contains about 50% soy protein by volume. However, if soy protein concentrate is used to create the TVP, protein content climbs to about 70%.

In terms of it’s characteristics, textured vegetable protein tends to maintain its spongy, meat-like texture even after heating. It cooks quickly, and similar to tofu, has very little flavor of it’s own. This actually makes it ideal for use as a meat substitute, because TVP tends to take on the flavors of other foods and seasonings that you add to it.

Common Uses for TVP

As I mentioned earlier, TVP can be used on it’s own to create vegan or vegetarian meatless dishes at home, but it’s most commonly found as the main ingredient in pre-prepared meatless foods like Boca Burgers, meatless breakfast sausage or chicken patties, or meatless ground “beef” like you find in the frozen food section.

Textured vegetable protein also finds its way into dry mixes for things like veggie burgers, and may appear in small amounts in non-vegetarian prepared foods as a meat extender or as a way to boost the protein content of a food.

In fact, anyone who had the pleasure of eating that monstrosity of a “meat” product called the “hamburger” in the high school cafeteria probably got a taste of the wonders of TVP as a meat extender. 

The U.S. government and its vast network of food contractors is one of the biggest buyers of textured soy/vegetable protein, using it to boost the protein content and lower the price of beef in school lunches, meals for the military, as well as to feed prisoners.

Prisons love TVP because it’s a cheap source of protein, although the prisoners themselves probably aren’t so keen on it. The government also loves TVP because it gives them something to do with all of those surplus soy beans that result from federal farm subsidies.

How Does TVP Taste?

Again, textured vegetable protein itself has a fairly neutral flavor.  On its own, it doesn’t taste like meat like beef, lamb or chicken — it just has a similar texture to those foods. To get a similar flavor, you have to try some seasoning tricks.

How To Flavor TVP

The palatability of TVP really depends on how you flavor TVP,  whether that is by the manufacturer or at home yourself.

In dishes with a lot of additional, flavorful ingredients such as chili, goulash, tacos or spaghetti sauces, textured vegetable protein actually can be pretty good stand-in for more expensive, fattier meats like ground beef. TVP tends to soak up the flavors in these dishes, and really just provides a meaty texture to the food.

If you are buying dehydrated TVP in bulk and trying to make your own meatless dishes at home, you’ll want to flavor the TVP by combining it with herbs or spices, seasoning mixes or packets or even things like onions, garlic, soy sauce or eggs (if you aren’t a vegetarian, of course.)

TVP and Prepared Meat Substitutes

Texture vegetable protein has come a long way over the past four decades as a main ingredient in meatless food like meatless bacon or beef strips or meatless chicken patties from manufacturers like MorningStar Farms or Boca. 

Many of the meatless products now available in the frozen section of the grocery taste surprisingly good — especially compared to the first generation of meatless foods that began to hit shelves in the ’70s. From a nutritional standpoint, they are considered healthy, primarily because they are high in protein and very low in cholesterol and fat — especially saturated fat.

Soy protein is also one of the four foods that Dr. David J.A. Jenkins of the University of Toronto recommends as part of his Portfolio Dietapproach to naturally lowering serum cholesterol levels without the use of Statin drugs.  Meatless foods are often one of the main sources of these soy proteins for people on The Portfolio Diet.

Is Textured Vegetable Protein Healthy?

While clearly there are health benefits to substituting something like TVP for higher-fat sources of protein like beef,  there is a fair amount of debate around how much soy protein a person should be including in their diet.

Soy Protein and Heart Disease

In 1998, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted a health claim that “25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.” 

Twenty five grams of soy protein is about four glasses of soy milk, three MorningStar Farms Chik Patties or about 1/2 cup (50 grams) of dried TVP.

However, a 2006 study by the American Heart Association and published in the journal Circulation challenged this health claim.

The review took a look at a decades worth of research around soy protein consumption and heart disease  and anti-cancer claims and found that soy isoflavones did not reduce “hot flashes” in post-menopausal women and did not reduce the risk of certain cancers, as previously claimed.  Based on this, the study recommended that women not supplement with soy isoflavones.

However, the review did state that including non-supplemental sources of soy protein, such as soy burgers, butters, tofu or soy nuts could be beneficial to cardiovascular health, especially when substituted for higher-fat and higher-cholesterol foods.

Estrogen and Soy

Soy protein, especially soy protein isolates, are also high in two estrogenic compounds: genistein and daidzein. 

This has led to some speculation that it could actually raise estrogen levels in humans, perhaps increasing the risk of certain estrogen-related cancers in women or reducing testosterone levels in men. 

However, even here, the research around estrogenic effects of soy protein in men and women is conflicting. 

Most of the research to-date around estrogenic effects of soy protein in males has focused on supplementation with soy protein — not necessarily the inclusion of food sources of soy protein like TVP.  One study found soy supplementation decreased testosterone levels in men by 4%, while another study from the Nutrition/Endocrinology Division of the Miami Research Associates found no decrease in testosterone.  

So the debate continues.

Soy Allergies and TVP

Some people also may have or develop allergies to soy products, including TVP. 

Next to peanuts, soy is rated the second-most allergenic food to humans and some people find TVP difficult to digest. In those individuals, it may cause gas or bloating, and in some people, more serious reactions similar to peanut allergies. So if you experience any of these side-effects, you might want to find another source of meatless protein.

Is Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) a “Health Food?”

Many vegans and vegetarians rely on TVP as a major source for non-amimal based dietary protein. 

Because vegetarianism is closely tied with “health” and “health food” or “healthy eating”, TVP has by association been often classified as a “health food” — making its way into the bulk isle at natural food stores.

Yet, textured vegetable protein strictly speaking doesn’t really qualify as a “whole food” — since it’s created through a fairly elaborate industrial process. For this reason, whether TVP is truly a “clean eating” food is questionable.  TVP doesn’t grow in the field, it has to be produced in a factory.

For this reason, many vegetarians or even omnivores who are trying to practice a clean eating-style diet will choose less processed, more whole food sources of soy protein — things like edamame, tofu or tempeh. 

That said, a few Boca burgers here and there — especially in place of less lean cuts of meat — can support a healthy, clean diet.  As always, moderation is the key. Living off from meatless chicken patties probably isn’t a good idea, but eating a few of them during the week is certainly preferable to downing an Quarter-Pounder with Cheese.

Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) Nutritional Facts

A 1/4 cup dry serving of textured vegetable protein or TVP has:

•  80 calories
•  0 grams of fat
•  0 grams of cholesterol
• 2 mg of sodium
• 594 mg of potassium
• 7 grams of carbohydrates
• 4 grams of fiber
• 3 grams of sugar
• 12 grams of protein
• 8% calcium RDA
• 15% Iron RDA
• 18% magnesium RDA

Where Can I Buy Textured Vegetable Protein or TVP?

You can usually buy textured vegetable protein in bulk at health food stores like Whole Foods, or prepackaged at many grocery stores. You can also buy bulk and organic TVP online at Amazon.com.

Have a Question for the Fitness Nerd? Want a Chance To Win Some Free Under Armour?

If you have a question for the Fitness Nerd on exercise, diet, nutrition or healthy eating and cooking, send your question to: askthefitnessnerd@answerfitness.com. 

Each month, I’ll draw a name from all of the legitimate questions I receive and the winner will receive a $20 Under Armour eGift Card redeemable exclusively at http://www.underarmour.com/.

What’s my definition of legit? Legit means that your question is related somehow to fitness, diet, nutrition, supplements, exercise, healthy eating, etc. You get the point.

Please include your full name, city and state and e-mail address to be entered in the drawing. Only your first name, last initial and location will be posted with your question. The winner will be chosen and announced on the first day of each month. Void where prohibited, you need not be present at the drawing to win, blah, blah, blah ….

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How Long Does Whey Protein Last For? We Take A Look At The Shelf Life of That Cannister of Whey Protein

Dear Fitness Nerd,

I have a quick question about the shelf life of whey protein powder.  My ex boyfriend left a 5lb tub of Optimum Nutrition 100% whey protein powder in our apartment, but I can’t seem to find an expiration date on it. We’ve been broke up for about a year, so I know it’s at least 12 months old. It still has the seal on it, so I think he may have bought it right before we split. Is it safe to use? And do you have any idea how long it will keep?  Thanks! –  Tasha (Las Vegas, NV)

How Long Does Whey Protein Last For?

Normally, whey protein powder will have an expiration date somewhere on the cannister — it’s required by law.  Optimum Nutrition typically stamps the expiry date for whey on the plastic wrapper near the top of the tub.

In general, whey protein powders — especially an isolate powder or 100% whey product with a high proportion of isolates — will have a very stable shelf life. 

Oxidation & Rancidity: The Real Enemy

Protein itself, when it’s been defatted and “dehydrated” (as the case is with whey protein powders), is not particularly prone to rancidity. Rancidity is the result of oxidation in fats and oils, which changes their structure for the worst. This can be caused by heat, light, oxygen, or a combination of the three.

However, most 100% whey protein powders contain very little fat.  In fact, the Optimum Nutrition whey powder your boyfriend left in the apartment has only 1.5 grams of fat.  So provided it was stored in a cool location, it should have a shelf-life of at least a year — and probably closer to two years.

Most food manufacturers tend to be quite conservative with their expiration dates, because they know that people keep foods around for longer than they intend, and often don’t pay much attention to the expiration dates.

Just think about that bottle of mustard in the fridge — I bet if you checked it, it’s at least a year out of date.  Yet, it’s probably still fine.

Whats the Real Motivation Behind Expiration Dates and Shelf-Life?

Supplement and food producers know people keep foods beyond their expiration date, so they low ball the shelf-life to take this into account.  I also helps hustle more product.

Plus, they don’t want any legal issues if someone downs a scoop of four-year-old whey protein and gets the “runs” the next day because they also had a coney dog and chili-cheese fries the night before from some joint of “questionable cleanliness.”

Personally, I consume a lot of whey protein powder, and keep little bags of the stuff all over the place: in my gym bag, my desk drawer at work, my laptop bag and even my luggage pockets. Some of it I know is at least two years old and I’ve never had any issues with it.

What About Protein and Vitamin Breakdown?

You might hear people talk about “protein breakdown” on fitness message boards when they discuss how long whey will keep, but there really isn’t too much to worry about here.

Protein is actually pretty tough stuff — it’s going to take more than 24 months sitting on a shelf to degrade its chemical properties.  Remember, it takes some powerful enzymes to break down proteins during digestion and merely resting in a sealed container isn’t going to do this.

Yes, the manufacturer might fortify the protein powder with additional vitamins and minerals that can lose their potency with time, but even this concern is probably overstated.

A study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that many drugs — both over-the-counter and prescription — have shelf lives that far exceed the manufacturer’s recommended expiration dates.  In some cases, the drugs maintain their potency for as long as 15 years. 

Should I Drink The Whey?

The best approach here is to use common sense.

I’m not recommending that people throw aside caution and start downing out-of-date foods or vitamins. 

However, in the case of whey protein, there is little harm in trying the protein powder. Open it up and mix some with water.  If it has any “off” flavors or smells, or causes any kind of upset stomach, then throw the stuff out and buy yourself a new tub of whey.

Whatever you decide to do, there is very little risk of any type of serious illness as result of ingesting a single-serving of “out-dated” whey powder.  In your specific case, Optimum Nutrition makes an excellent product that I use myself, and I know I have downed some stuff that is “out-of-date.”

I’m still alive.

But if this is something you are really worried about, skip the guess-work and just chuck the mystery whey powder and buy some fresh stuff.  The money you save often isn’t worth the mental anguish.

But that’s your call.

Have a Question for the Fitness Nerd? Want a Chance To Win Some Free Under Armour?

If you have a question for the Fitness Nerd on exercise, diet, nutrition or healthy eating and cooking, send your question to: askthefitnessnerd@answerfitness.com. 

Each month, I’ll draw a name from all of the legitimate questions I receive and the winner will receive a $20 Under Armour eGift Card redeemable exclusively at http://www.underarmour.com/.

What’s my definition of legit? Legit means that your question is related somehow to fitness, diet, nutrition, supplements, exercise, healthy eating, etc. You get the point.

Please include your full name, city and state and e-mail address to be entered in the drawing. Only your first name, last initial and location will be posted with your question. The winner will be chosen and announced on the first day of each month. Void where prohibited, you need not be present at the drawing to win, blah, blah, blah ….

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When It Comes to Measuring Body Fat, Forget The Fancy Electronic Scales and Instead Reach for The Body Fat Calipers

In my mind, there is no single piece of fitness, bodybuilding or health equipment that more useful than a good pair of body fat calipers.

Yes, they are made out of plastic. Yes, they take a little bit of practice to get right. And yes, they won’t give you instant,  flashy digital results (which are usually inaccurate anyway.)

If you want high tech, go ahead and fork over $50 for an electrical-impedance body fat scale. Chances are you’ll get different body fat readings each time you step on the scale — even if that’s five minutes after your took your last measurement.

Or you could try to convince your doctor to order a hydrostatic body fat test, which is considered the gold standard in body fat measurement, but is unlikely to be covered by your insurance or employer (unless you are LeBron James) and will set you back hundreds of dollars for just a few extra percentage points of accuracy.

So unless you are an elite athlete with a cadre of sports trainers at your beck and call, you should be able to get along fine with a single-measurement reading from a quality body fat caliper.

Why Measure Body Fat Percentage?

Unlike bathroom scales or the body mass index (BMI) which only measure weight, fat calipers allow you to measure the percentage of your body mass that is fat versus lean tissue like muscle, bone and internal organs.  This gives you a much more accurate idea of what your actual body composition is.

For example, a 130 lb female fitness model might have a body fat percentage of 13% — which is very lean — while a 110 lb Hollywood actress of the same height might weigh 110 lbs, but have 20% body fat.

Which is leaner and which is more fit?

If you went by scale weight alone, which does not take into account the composition of that weight, you’d probably say the 110 lb actress.  But you would be wrong. The fitness model has a higher proportion of lean muscle to fat, which visually means she’ll probably look more “toned” and in shape, with less jiggle.

So knowing what your body fat percentage is enables you to focus on the right goals.

Ironically, pursuing weight loss as your main objective can actually result in a person becoming “fatter” as a they sacrifice lean tissue in the process of making the digits on a bathroom scale go down.

However, when you use percentage of body fat (%BF) lost as your primary measurement for progress and success, you’ll generally know whether you exercise and diet routine are causing you to actually lose body fat (which should be your goal) and not precious lean muscle along the way.

Why Body Fat Calipers?

While there are all kinds of fancy (and often expensive) ways to measure body fat percentage, at the end of the day, a good pair of inexpensive body fat calipers like those made by Accu-Measure will do the trick just fine for 90 percent of all people. 

While it may be tempting to buy the one of the myriad of electronic body fat testing scales, monitors and hand-held devices out there, you’ll typically get more consistent and accurate results with a manual body fat caliper.

Most electronic body fat scales and monitors use electrical impedance to measure body fat percentages, which is notoriously inaccurate since it can be influenced by things like hydration and electrolyte balance. Manual body fat calipers, when properly used, typically don’t run into these issues since they are taking physical measurements which are not as easily influenced by these biological variables.

Body fat calipers are also inexpensive (typically under $10) and portable, allowing them to be thrown into your workout or gym bag. Try fitting an electronic scale in there. And if you happen to misplace them, at that price-point, it’s generally no big deal. 

And then there is privacy.

Some people simply don’t feel comfortable having their body fat measured at the gym, either by a trainer or on one of the electronic body fat scales. Using calipers allows you to measure and track your body fat percentages in the privacy of your own home, or in the locker room at the gym, which will make you more likely to consistently track your progress.

Are Body Fat Calipers Accurate?

While it might seem that electronic measurements would provide more accurate body fat percentage readings, manual body fat calipers are surprisingly accurate when consistently used correctly.

A study published in the 1998 issue of the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research compared a single-site manual body fat caliper (in this case, the Accu-Measure 3000 skin fold caliper) against the Futrex 1000 Near-Infrared Device (NID) and a Lange multi-site caliper (administered by an experienced technician.) 

Measurements for the three devices were then compared for accuracy against hydrostatic or “underwater” weighing — considered the “gold standard” in body fat testing.  

The researchers found that the Accu-Measure single site body fat caliper was accurate within 1%of the measurement given by the under water weighing. This held true for measurements in both men and women.  The Accu-Measure calipers also were more accurate than the more sophisticated and expensive Futrex 1000 NID, which tended to over estimate body fat levels compared to the body fat calipers and under water weighing.

These findings were consistent with earlier studies comparing the accuracy of manual body fat calipers — using both single skin fold tests and multiple-point skin fold tests. 

There is some evidence, however, that skin fold tests become less accurate as the obesity of an individual increases, leading to under-estimations of %BF in these individual.

However, the phenomenon is true not just for caliper-based skin fold tests , but also bioelectrical impedance and near-infrared devices. In non-obese individuals, all three methods provided  %BF within accepted ranges of accuracy.

In other words, used correctly, single-site manual body fat calipers work nearly as well as under-water weighing for measuring percentage of body fat, and significantly better (at at least as well) than some of the more expensive high-tech tools like Near-Infrared Devices and bioelectrical impedance.

How to Use Body Fat Calipers

There are two types of body fat calipers: single skin-fold test caliperslike the Accu-Measure 3000 Body Fat Caliper and Lange calipers that take multiple-skin fold measurements.

For most people, a single skin-fold measurement will do just fine and will provide fairly accurate measurement, provided the caliper is used correctly and consistently.

Single skinfold caliper measurements work because there is a high correlation between abdominal fat and overall %BF levels.  This is the old “pinch an inch” test — which is made more scientifically accurate via a caliper reading and a formula that extrapolates total body fat percentage based on that measurement.

The Accu-Measure body fat caliper works by taking a single measurement at the suprailliac site, which is approximately one inch above the right hipbone.

Here’s how you take a body fat measurement with the Accu-Measure 3000 Personal Body Fat Tester:

1. Locate the suprailliac site, which is about one inch above the right hip bone
2. While standing pinch the suprailliac skinfold between your left thumb and forefinger and hold it in place
3. With the body fat calipers in your right hand, place the jaws of the fat caliper over the fold and close it until it “clicks” into place. The slide member will automatically stop at the correct measurement.
4. Record the number
5. Repeat two more times and use an average of the three readings for your final measurement
6. Use the body fat interpretation chart that comes with the Accu-Measure body fat calipers to determine your %BF based on the skinfold test measurement.

It’s really that easy.

How To Ensure Accurate Caliper Readings

The key to accurate body fat caliper readings over time is to make sure you are consistently measuring in same location. 

If you are measuring it too high or too low on the suprailliac site, your results may very from reading-to-reading. Averaging tends to overcome this, but as you get better at locating the site, accuracy will tend to go up.

On a side-note, one female reader who owns a pair of Accu-Measure Fat Calipers had the ingenious idea of  getting a small tattoo at her suprailliac site so she would always be measuring at the same place.  While I thinkshe was joking, if you’re into body ink, it’s a novel — albeit, somewhat extreme — solution to the “am I measuring at the right point” problem.  Just be sure to pick the right tattoo, since you’ll have to live with that ”Heartbreaker” just above your hipbone for the rest of your life.  

What Does It All Mean? Using Body Fat Measurements Wisely

While the initial reading that you’ll take with a body fat caliper will give you a general idea of your percentage of body fat, that alone doesn’t really help you much aside from satisfying your curiosity and — depending on the results — making you feel elated or depressed.

What your current body fat percentage is doesn’t really matter.  What matters is what happens to that body fat percentage over time as you increase your activity, clean-up your diet and tweak your exercise and workout routine.

Body fat percentages are really only valuable relative to each other. It’s a way to gauge your progress that doesn’t really on the inaccuracies of scale-weight alone.  Even if the calipers aren’t 100% accurate compared to other methods like underwater weighing, they should be fairly accurate in relation to past caliper readings, provided you are consistently measuring in the same place.

Don’t expect to see a major change in your readings over night — because the calipers measure in millimeters, it will take some time to see your fat loss add up. We’re talking weeks and months, not days. Take a weekly reading, write it down, and then revisit the starting point in about two months.  If you’re doing the right things, you will see a decrease.

And remember that evenfairly small decreases in the skinfold translate into fairly large reductions in body fat percentages. Each millimeter reduction roughly corresponds to a 3% reduction in total %BF.

So losing even a couple of millimeters over a few months will have a clear and marked impact on your body fat and appearance.

Calculating and Monitoring Lean Body Mass to %BF Ratios with Calipers

Taking weekly body fat percentage readings with calipers in conjunction with weighing yourself on a scale can also help you better gauge whether you are losing body fat or lean mass or both.  To calculate your lean body mass (LBM):

1. Take your percentage bodyfat and multiply it by your scale weight to arrive at total lbs of body fat
2. Subtract the total lbs of fat from your scale weight. The resulting number will be your lean body mass.

So let’s say you are a 180 lb male at 20% body fat. Multiply .20 by 180 to get 36.  This is how many lbs of body fat you are currently carrying. Now, subtract 36 from 180 (your scale weight) to get 144. This is your lean body mass.

So to recap: A 180 lb male at 20% body fat has 36 lbs of fat and 144 lbs of lean body mass.

Why does any of this matter?

Well, let’s say you are that 180 lb man you’ve been trying to lose weight. You’re pretty happy with yourself: Your scale weight has gone from 180 to 170,  and your body fat from 20% to 17%.  All is good, right? You lost weight and you lost body fat.

Not so fast, though.

Instead of carrying 36 lbs of fat, you now have reduced that to 28.9 lbs.  However, your lean body mass is now 141 lbs.  That means you actually lost muscle along with the body fat, to the tune of three pounds.  Not so good.

While some loss of lean body mass will typically occur along with fat loss, you want to minimize it as much as possible. In the above scenario, you might have cut your calories back too much, been performing too much cardio, or even not performing enough weight training to maintain your lean body mass.

But without using body fat calipers to measure your %BF and comparing your fat loss to muscle loss, you would never have known that. Now that you do, you can tweak your diet or workout routine to minimize the loses in LMB.

Where To Buy Body Fat Calipers

You can purchase body fat calipers at many sporting goods or fitness stores or online at Amazon.com. Many gyms will also sell body fat calipers, including the Accu-Measure products.

I am partial to the Accu-Measure products, because I have used them myself with good results. 

They are easy to use, well-made and come with good instructions. They are also inexpensive, which makes them accessible to nearly anyone regardless of their budget.  While Accu-Measure offers several fat calipers, including a digital skinfold caliper, I still recommend going with the basic Accu-Measure 3000 calipers.

If you are a gadget geek and money is no object, go ahead and splurge on one of the digital versions. However, in terms of accuracy, there is little difference between the manual fat calipers and the digital. 

One nice feature of the Accu-Measure FatTrack Prodigital body fat caliper is that it will do the %BF and lean body mass calculations automatically for you, but it does come with a hefty $69.99 price tag.  So it really comes down to how much work you want to do yourself and what you are comfortable spending.

You can buy the Accu-Measure 3000 Personal Body Fat Tester Calipers new and used on Amazon.com for under $10 and sometimes you can pick them up for as little as $4.

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What Are the 8 Essential Amino Acids and What Are Their Benefits?

Definition of Essential Amino Acids

Essential Amino Acids (also known as Indispensible Amino Acids) are amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the body, and thus must be supplied by diet. 

Essential Amino Acids, while required by the human body to support life, are not called “essential”  because they are more important than other amino acids, but instead because they cannot be produced by the body. In other words, they must be obtained through food sources since the body cannot produce them itself.

Non-essential amino acids are those that are synthesized by the body and do not require dietary supplementation.

List of Essential Amino Acids

In adults, there are eight amino acids that have traditionally been considered essential:

• Phenyalanine
• Valine
• Threonine
• Tryptophan
• Isoleucine
• Methionine
• Leucine
• Lysine

Histidine has recently been discovered to not be synthesized in adults, which raises the list of 9 essential amino acids in adults.

In infants or growing children, the list grows to 12 essential amino acids, including:

• Cysteine
• Tyrosine
• Histidine
• Arginine

Benefits of Essential Amino Acids

Amino acids play a central role as the building block of protein, as well as intermediaries in metabolism. 

The 20 amino acids found in protein facilitate everything from catalyzing most reactions in living cells to controlling cellular activity, including the creation and preservation of muscle.

There are 20 amino acids that make up critical proteins in the body, and depending on age and certain conditions, the body can produce 10-12 of the necessary amino acids independent of diet.

However, a deficiency in even one of the eight essential amino acids (or ten essential amino acids, in the case of infants or growing children) can cause degradation in the body’s proteins, resulting in muscle loss or developmental defects.

Essential Amino Acids and Complete Proteins

Foods that contain all 8 essential amino acids are known as “complete proteins.”  

Animal-based sources of food such as meat (beef, lamb, bison), poultry, eggs, dairy and fish/seafood are considered sources of complete proteins, along with a small number of plant-sources of protein like quinoa, buckweat, hemp and soya.

Most grains, legumes, pulses and vegetables contain some of the essential amino acids, but not all, qualifying them for the moniker “incomplete proteins.”

This means that vegetarians or vegans need to eat a wide variety of plant-based proteins across the day, or combine complementary proteins (for example beans and rice or wheat and corn), in order to ensure that they are consuming all essential amino acids in the right proportions to ensure proper health.

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Completely Confused About Complete Proteins? Learn What A Complete Protein Is and How Balance Your Protein Intake

Dear Fitness Nerd,

Can you explain exactly what a complete protein is? I’m 23 and pretty into fitness, working out, etc. I lift weights several times a week and run daily.  But I’m also a vegetarian and concerned I may not be eating enough protein every day to support my activity levels.  I’m also worried that since I primarily eat plant sources of protein, I might not be getting a complete protein. Can you help me out here? Thanks!   – Jessa (San Diego – CA)

A complete protein is a protein source that contains all eight essential amino acids in the sufficient proportions to support normal biological functions.   In adults, the eight essential amino acids are:

• Phenylalanine
• Valine
• Threonine
• Tryptophan
• Isoleucine
• Methionine
• Leucine
• Lysine

These amino acids are called “essential” because the body cannot make them, so they have to be supplied through diet.  Recently, histadine has been added to this list as well, as scientists discovered that adults cannot synthesize it.

Incomplete proteins are proteins that lack one or more of the eight essential amino acids. Most plant-based proteins will meet the criteria for an incomplete protein, while animal-based foods are considered the primary sources of complete protein.

Examples of Complete Proteins from Animal Sources

The most common examples of complete proteins are foods that come from animals. These sources of protein include things like:

• Fish
• Seafood/Shellfish
• Poultry
• Milk
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Meat

When you consume these foods,  you take in all eight essential amino acids in a single food source. There is generally no need for additional amino acid supplementation.

Examples of Complete Proteins from Plant Sources

There are only a handful of plant-sources of protein that provide all eight amino acids in the necessary proportions to qualify as a ”complete protein.”  These sources of complete protein include:

• Quinoa
• Buckwheat
• Hempseed
• Soybeans

Most people who eat a variety of plant-based and animal-based foods typically do not have to worry about whether they are consuming complete proteins — the variety in their diet will typically take care of that naturally.

Complete Protein for Vegetarians

In terms of complete proteins for vegetarians, conventional wisdom has stressed protein combining of certain foods together in the same meal to ensure that a person is receiving adequate amounts of all eight essential amino acids.  Examples of complete protein food combinations include consuming beans and rice  in the same meal or eating corn and wheat together. 

The idea here is to combine a food that is lacking in one or more amino acids with another food that contains those missing essential amino acids.  In doing so, you create a complete protein.

However, recent research has indicated that it may not be necessary to consume complementary proteins in the same meal.  A small amount of amino acids are ”pooled” by the body  – so for most moderately active people eating a variety of plant-based proteins across the day should suffice. For very active people, athletes or even fitness buffs who are trying to add lean mass,  protein combining may be more desireable.

While protein combining may be unnecessary for the average vegetarian, there are some exceptions:  If a person is on a vegetarian diet that is heavily dependent on fruit, tubers or is high in junk food, they may not be consuming sufficient amounts of essential amino acids.  In these cases, diet modification may be necessary.

Complete Proteins and Vegetarian Athletes

While protein deficiency in vegetarians is generally rare — especially for people of average activity levels –vegetarian or vegan athletes may need to pay extra attention to the amount of protein they consume, even if the protein combinations are less important. 

Because protein requirements are typically higher in athletes or very active individuals in general (regardless of their type of diet), if you are focusing on building additional lean tissue, you may need to up your protein slightly on a plant-based diet to ensure recovery, muscle growth and support the added demands of your sport or physical activities.

Many plant-based sources of protein such as certain types of beans, pluses and grains (for example wheat) are not as easily digested as animal-sources of protein, so you may require a slightly higher RDA of protein versus a person who includes meat, eggs, milk or seafood in their diet. 

Even this is a bit controversial, since scientists continue to debate whether the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) accurately measures true protein digestibility in humans – especially since there are a number of variables that can influence how much protein from a food is absorbed by your body (including cooking methods, other foods consumed alongside it, your age and even flora and fauna in the gut.)

While the USDA and World Health Organization (WHO) does not differentiate between athletes and non-athletes when it comes to recommended daily allowances for protein, a good rule of thumb for endurance and strength athletes in good health is to have a protein intake of around 10 – 20% of your total calories.  

Recommended ranges are typically out  1.4 – 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body-weight per day, or roughly 150 grams of protein for a 180 lb male, or about 110 grams of protein for a 130 lb female.

Should I Worry About Getting Complete Proteins?

Depending on the type of vegetarianism that you follow, you may already be consuming plenty of sources of complete proteins.

Lacto-Ovo vegetarians who eat eggs and/or dairy products should have few concerns about complete proteins.  Vegetarians who only eat plants probably have little to worry about, but there are many vegetarian athletes and body builders who choose to protein combine just to be safe.

Whether this is necessary is open to debate. The belief among these individuals is that protein combining may give them a performance and recovery edge — especially immediately following weight training when complete proteins may be more vital to recovery and growth.  There is very little direct clinical research around this, however.

The research that does exist has looked not specifically at protein combining in vegetarian athletes, but rather at the use of sources of complete protein — typically whey and/or casein protein from diary products — as a post-workout recovery meal.  In these cases, individuals consuming this combination of protein and carbohydrates have shown increases in lean body mass over those who consumed only whey or carbohydrates.

The reasons for this are still open to interpretation. It may be simply that whey protein is quickly digested by the body, making it more readily available for recovery. Or it may be that consuming a complete protein itself assists with  protein synthesis. More than likely, it is a combination of the two.

If  muscle building on a vegetarian diet is one of your goals, go ahead and protein combine — especially immediately following your workouts.  It won’t hurt, and may possibly help.  While this is a bit easier and more convenient for Lacto-Ovo vegetarians, if you are on a strictly plant-based diet, you can always try soy protein isolates or grains like quinoa.

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If you have a question for the Fitness Nerd on exercise, diet, nutrition or healthy eating and cooking, send your question to: askthefitnessnerd@answerfitness.com. 

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Can Calorie Cycling Help Pull Off More Body Fat and Hold On To Precious Muscle?

Dear Fitness Nerd,

I recently heard about something called “calorie cycling.” Apparently it’s a way to prevent weight loss plateaus and maybe burn additional body fat. Do you know anything about calorie cycling or how it works? Is this different from the zig-zag diet concept, or the same thing?  And will it help me add more lean muscle?  — Marcus (Arlington, VA)

Calorie cycling (also known as “calorie shifting” or “Zig Zag dieting”)  is an approach to eating that is intended to prevent weight or fat loss plateaus by “tricking out” your metabolism. 

Calorie cycling or Zig Zag diets are not really ”diets” in the sense of something like Atkins or South Beach, but instead a method of manipulating the metabolism through varying your calorie intake day-to-day.

Many people who use it report experiencing greater overall fat loss, with less frequent weight or fat loss plateaus. It also may encourage the preservation of lean muscle mass, which is always at risk during when you restrict calories to encourage loss of body fat.

Although clinical research on the effectiveness of calorie cycling versus traditional dieting methods that utilize sustained calorie deficits is sparse, people who try it anecdotally-report good results.  However, this is an advanced fat loss technique that requires a fair amount of self-discipline to follow, as well as a willingness to measure food and count calories with a great deal of precision.  

The Theory Behind Calorie Cycling

At its core,  calorie cycling tries to solve for the body’s tendency toward homeostasis — or preserving the status quo. 

Losing body fat requires forcing your body into tapping your long-term stores of energy, which are packed on in subcutaneous fat (the fat below your skin.)  The only way to do this is to put yourself in a calorie-deficit. In other words, eating fewer calories than you expend each day just to keep your basic bodily functions running and fueling your activities, whether that’s working out or walking across the office.

Reduce your calories below your maintenance levels, and you’ll start to lose fat as the body goes to these sources to make up the deficit. Eat more calories than your body needs, and it will start to store the excess energy as body fat. Eat just the right amount of food, and your weight will stay the same.

Pretty simple formula: Calorie-in, calorie-out.

Why Traditional Diets Stumble: Homeostasis and Catabolism

There are two challenges, however, whenever you reduce your calories below your maintenance level for any extended period of time: catabolism and homeostasis.

Catabolism: The Enemy of Muscle

When you are in a calorie-deficit, the body doesn’t exclusively burn stored body fat to compensate for the gap. It also burns carbohydrates, and sometimes protein in the form of lean tissue.

So this means that even though you are losing scale weight and body fat, you may also be losing muscle along with it. 

Muscle, unlike body fat, is metabolically-active — meaning it requires energy even at rest — so you always want to maximize it whenever possible. However, whenever you are in a calorie-deficit for any extended period of time, you will generally lose some muscle along with the fat.

Homeostasis: The Body Doesn’t Like Change!

The second issue is that eventually your body will eventually catch on that you’re eating less food than you need, and it will interpret this as a sign that it might be in for an extended period of food scarcity.  So it will start to slow down your metabolism in order to conserve energy, since it interprets your calorie deficit as a sign of “famine.” 

This response is programmed into your genes from millions of years of human evolution, and is intended to help you survive in a famine. As you decrease your calories, hormones are produced that regulate metabolism and lipid oxidation (fat burning), literally slowing down how much energy your body burns.

These hormones (such as the stress hormone cortisol) present a dilemma for people who are trying to lose body fat while also preserving muscle.

Cortisol is catabolic and encourages the breakdown of lean tissue. It also tells the body to actually hold on to fat stores or even increase them when it has a chance. This is not a situation that will help you get lean. In fact, it’s pretty much a dieting death spiral.

This is why people will experience fairly dramatic weight or fat loss when first beginning a diet, but then hit a wall within a few weeks, as fat loss slows. 

Part of this is because as you get closer to your “ideal” weight, the body holds on even tighter to body fat as a protection against future food scarcity (those damn genes again). But the other reason is that your brain has started to slow your metabolism down as a response to the reduction in food.

This is where the dreaded diet plateau rears it’s ugly head.

Calorie Cycling To The Rescue?

Calorie cycling tries to avoid the body’s natural tendency toward homeostasis by essentially tricking it into thinking that your not actually dieting at all.

Because total fat loss isn’t necessarily about your calories on a specific day, but rather creating a total calorie deficit over a time, it’s possible to alternate days of calorie-deficits, with days of calorie-surpluses and still lose body fat.

Even better, because you alternating higher calorie days with lower calorie days,   you may be less likely to lose lean tissue and less prone to developing fat loss plateaus. This can be especially effective if you match your higher-calorie days to the days when you are performing weight training, since your body can use the extra energy to fuel your workout and recovery.

While your initial fat loss results may be less dramatic on a calorie cycling diet than if you simply put yourself into a sustained calorie deficit, over time, cycling your calories may actually result in more total fat loss with less muscle catabolism.

Or at least that’s the theory.

There has actually been very little clinical research conducted on calorie cycling.  So you should know that going into it.

Most of the evidence around the effectiveness of calorie cycling is anecdotal, although calorie cycling devotees often swear by the results.  The main point of contention is not whether you’ll lose fat (you will if done correctly), but rather how effective it actually is tricking out your metabolism.

There may be a psychological benefit to calorie cycling that makes it more effective for certain people, as well.  Some people find calorie cycling allows them to stick to their diet more easily, because you’re  incorporating some “cheat days” into your diet. This can make the the calorie-deficits more tolerable.   

Example of a Calorie Cycling Diet for Weight Loss

If you want to give calorie cycling a shot, you need to know a few things:

• How many calories you should be eating to maintain your current weight
• How many lbs of fat you want to lose during the diet
• Your workout schedule and intended intensity

Once you know these things, it’s basically just a matter of figuring out how to stagger your calories across the week to produce the necessarily cumulative deficit by the end of seven days. So let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you are a 30 year old male who weighs 180 lbs at six feet tall. You workout three times a week.

You will want to eat around 2500 calories a day (or 17,500 per week) to maintain your current weight. To lose 1 lb of fat each week, you need to create a weekly deficit of 3,500 calories (1 lb of fat contains roughly 3,500 calories) which means you need to come in at around 14,000 calories for the week (17,500 – 3,500 = 14,000 calories.)

With a traditional diet, you would either eat 500 fewer calories each day or expend an addition 500 calories each day. Over seven days, that would create a total deficit of 3500 calories, which under most circumstance would cause you to lose about a pound of fat.  So here’s what your daily calorie intake would look like:

Monday: 1998
Tuesday: 1998
Wednesday: 1998
Thursday: 1998
Friday: 1998
Saturday: 1998
Sunday: 1998

Total for week: 13,986

Your calories are the same each day, resulting in a 3500 calorie deficit at the end of the week.

However, you with calorie cycling, your calories per day would look like this:

Monday: 1998
Tuesday: 1599
Wednesday: 2398
Thursday: 1998
Friday: 1799
Saturday: 2198
Sunday: 1998

Total for the week: 13,998

You still end the week with a 3,500 calorie deficit, but you achieve that by cycling your calories up and down each day, versus keeping them steady day-over-day.

One of the nice things about this approach is that you can align the higher calorie days with your most intense workouts, and the lower calorie days with either cardio or rest days.  This can help give you more energy on the days when you need it and encourage anabolism and muscle building on the days when you are training.

How To Create Your Own Calorie Cycling Diet Plan

You can create your own calorie cycling diet plan with a calculator and a little arithmetic.

You basically take your daily target for whatever your goal is (weight loss, weight gain, or maintenance) and then add a few hundred more calories in one day, while subtracting a few hundred on another day so that over seven days you are still hitting your total cumulative calorie target.

You can come up with a number of different patterns that you can try, and then see which calorie cycling routine works best for your goals.

If this all sounds too tedious,  there are some nice tools available online to take the grunt work out of figuring out how to cycle the calories each day to get the necessary deficit at the end of the week. This tool does a good job of calculating a 7-day zig zag diet for you.

Challenges to Calorie Cycling

The biggest challenge to calorie cycling is the self-discipline it requires.

In general, you’ll want to be fairly precise about where you come in each day for this approach to work. You’ll need to count calories here. For how long depends on how good you are at gauging portions, but most people who report success with calorie cycling get pretty scientific with their calorie counting.

Using food and diet tracking tool like Sparkpeople.com, Fitday or Calorie King can take most of the monotony out of tracking your food intake, and will also let you see which patterns in your calorie cycling regimen work best for hitting your goals.

However, if counting calories is something you hate doing, then calorie cycling probably isn’t a particularly good option for you.

Have a Question for the Fitness Nerd? Want a Chance To Win Some Free Under Armour?

If you have a question for the Fitness Nerd on exercise, diet, nutrition or healthy eating and cooking, send your question to: askthefitnessnerd@answerfitness.com. 

Each month, I’ll draw a name from all of the legitimate questions I receive and the winner will receive a $20 Under Armour eGift Card redeemable exclusively at http://www.underarmour.com/.

What’s my definition of legit? Legit means that your question is related somehow to fitness, diet, nutrition, supplements, exercise, healthy eating, etc. You get the point.

Please include your full name, city and state and e-mail address to be entered in the drawing. Only your first name, last initial and location will be posted with your question. The winner will be chosen and announced on the first day of each month. Void where prohibited, you need not be present at the drawing to win, blah, blah, blah ….

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We Take a Look at the Most Popular Fad Diets of the Past 30 Years and Pick The Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets to Ever Be Unleashed on Dieters. 

The Fad Diet.

Nothing exemplifies the American obsession with quick fixes more than the seemingly endless parade of fad diets cooked up by everyone from modern snake-oil salesmen, to slick Internet entreprenuers, to corporate product marketing teams looking for a new way to sell an old product.

The formula for a fad diet is pretty consistent:

Take a single ”miracle food” , add a little glitz and glamour in the form of a celebrity (nevermind whether she actually uses it, just mentioning it will suffice), sprinkle on some big weight loss promises, mix in some mis-applied clinical research, finish it up with a heaping spoonful of dramatic before-and-after pictures and you pretty much have a recipe for the classic fad diet.  

The Top Ten Dumbest Fad Diets below go by many names and often have many variations.  

Like a virus, some of these diets just seem to naturally mutate once they are released on the Internet, so tracking down their origins or even how they work can be difficult. In this regard, they have more in common with urban legends, than eating plans.

How Do You Qualify For The Top Ten Dumbest Fad Diet List?

Qualifying for this list of Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets is pretty easy.

Any diet that focuses on a single food as the “secret” to weight loss gets immediate consideration. Also, any diet that includes extreme calorie-restriction, seemingly arbitrary eating rules (or lists of forbidden foods without explanation), or is nutritionally unbalanced earns a place in the list. Also, there is a whole class of pure B.S. diets concocted by saavy, but unscrupulous Internet marketers, that instantly earn the distinction “Dumb Fad Diet.”

In most cases, the fad diets below just defy common sense, which is the ultimate definition of “dumbness” in my book.

Are All of Top Ten  Fad Diets “Unhealthy?”

Only two of the diets below — the Special K Diet and the Alkaline Diet — could be considered marginally legit or “healthy.”

The Alkaline Diet makes some questionable scientific claims that make it dumb, but in comparison to its company like the Lemonade Diet, it looks downright healthy.

Same goes for the Special K Diet, which earned a place on this list not because it’s particularly bad for you, but because it’s a great example of the growing phenomenon of “Corporate-crafted” fad diets used to push a food product.  Kellogg isn’t the only company doing this, they just happen to be the ones I’m picking on today.

With the exception of the Kimkins Diet and maybe the Lemonade or Detox Diet, it’s unlikely any of these diets will cause lasting harm.  The duration of them is generally too short for serious nutritional deficicencies to develop and the sheer dumbness and monotony of most of them will make them self-limiting. 

However, serial crash dieting can cause nutritional deficiencies over time, as well as possible health issues, including eating disorders. So my recommendation is to avoid them, period.

In terms of weight-loss, you will probably temporarily lose some weight on any or all of these diets — but the key term here is ”temporary.”  Rebound weight gain is almost a given with most of these fad diets, since they typically won’t result in real body fat loss, but rather loss of water weight.

The list of Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets is ranked 1-10, with the dumbest fad diet being Kimkins in the number one slot and The Special K coming in at 10. 

Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets

1. Kimkins Diet

The Kimkins Diet earns the not-so distinguished distinction of being not only being possibly the dumbest fad diet of the past two decades, but also one of the most potentially dangerous and deceptive.

And because it was pitched as a “long-term” diet, it’s potential for causing health issues was much greater than short-duration crash diets.

This diet combines a ultra-low fat, low-carbohydrate eating regimen with copious use of chemical laxatives to deliver promises of dramatic weight loss that are  ”better than gastric bypass surgery!”

The diet’s chief-guru was “Kimmer”  (aka Heidi Diaz) who plastered her dramatic before and after pictures all over the Internet, allegedly earning herself millions in subscriptions to her site where she and a small army of diet hacks doled out advice to the most desperate of dieters.

Problem was, Heidi never lost the weight she claimed — instead the “after” pictures were snatched off from Russian dating sites. In fact, Kimmer … er … Heidi had no business even developing this diet, since she had zero nutrition training and based on her weight, couldn’t lose the fat even on her own diet plan.

Outrage ensued, with former Kimkins followers (who called themselves “Ducks”) taking up torches and pitchforks online to expose the ruse.  Lawsuits followed and “Kimmer” is now embroiled in multiple legal proceedings over her claims and alleged misrepresentations.

The Kimkins Diet is downright dangerous because it prescribes a high-protein, low-carbydrate and ultra-low fat diet — kind of like Atkins but without the bacon.

These types of “protein” diets were linked to a number of cases of sudden-cardiac arrest in the 70s when the hordes of people jumped on the “liquid protein diet” craze.  While there are no reported deaths from Kimkins, former-Kimkins dieters alledge all kinds of health problems as a result of the diet, including loss of hair and skin problems.

While the Kimkins website is still active and apparently recruiting new dieters, in January 2009 Diaz filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

This Fad Diet ranks as the dumbest of the dumb. Avoid it at all costs.

2. Lemonade Diet

Diet Aliases:  The Detox Diet, Master Cleanse, Lemon Cleanse, Maple Syrup Diet

The Lemonade Diet is a “detoxification diet”  that pushes the bounds of stupidity and earns second place in our list of The Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets.

Fueled by tabloid headlines and a very high-profile celebrity dieter (Beyonce Knowles),  The Lemonade Diet seemed to take the world by storm in 2007-2008.  Forget that Beyonce later distanced herself from it.

The Lemonade Diet is originally credited to Stanley Burroughs, who developed it in 1941. Burroughs was a self-appointed “alternative medicine” guru, with no formal medical training.  The diet was recently revived and popularized by Peter Glickman in his book Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days.

Like many “detoxification” diets, The Lemonade Diet relies on extreme-calorie restriction to trigger weight loss.  It also makes scientifically-unproven claims around removing toxins from the body.  There is zero peer-reviewed research to back up any of the weight-loss, detoxification or health claims of this diet. Just a lot of conjecture and hocus-pocus.

The Lemonade Diet  is more or less a water fast, although it’s proponents bristle at that characterization. You eat no solid food during the duration of the diet (which typically lasts 10 days), and instead drink a “lemonade” made from water, lemon or lime juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. 

Since you’re eating no solid food or fiber, you have to take natural “laxatives” each night and morning unless you want your bowls to bind up.  This usually means sipping senna tea and drinking salt water. Yummy!

While Lemonade Diet advocates say the “lemonade” mixture you’re drinking is balanced and contains vitamins and minerals, the amount of maple syrup and lemon juice is actually quite small.  There is very little “balance” in this fad diet and very little nutrition.  Macronutrients like protein, fat and carbohydrates are all but non-existant. 

Anyone would lose weight on this diet, because you are literally starving yourself. 

A bread and water diet would have been more nutritious than the Lemonade Diet, and probably safer as well. But of course, saying that you’re going on the “Bread and Water Diet” just doesn’t sound as sexy as “I’m doing The Lemonade Diet” or “I’m detoxifying my chakras and bowels via a 10 day fast.”

Bread and water is for convicts, the Lemonade Diet is for superstars.

This diet is just plain dumb, especially for anyone who is trying to be fit and in shape.

Expect tons of muscle loss during it, since you’ll basically be in a catabolic state 24/7 for ten days.  While following it for a couple days probably won’t cause any lasting health problems in healthy adults, doing it for the recommended 10 days (or longer) probably isn’t a smart move.

3. Cabbage Soup Diet

Diet Aliases: Mayo Clinic Diet, The Sacred Heart Diet, The Cabbage Diet, 7 Day Cabbage Soup Diet

Cabbage is good for you. All-you-can-eat cabbage soup six times a day is just dumb.

The first of several “mono-diets” that make this list of the Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets, this brilliant eating plan has you pretty much substituting a Dickensian-esque soup made from cabbage, onions, green peppers, Lipton soup mix and V-8 juice (how’s that combo for you) for  most of your meals each day. 

The Cabbage Soup Diet, which also is sometimes called the “Mayo Clinic Diet” or ”The Sacred Heart Diet”  has been around for at least three decades.  And while it claims to be a legit diet plan, both the Mayo Clinic and Sacred heart Hospital have denied any involvement in the diet.

In otherwords, someone with a love of cabbage just pulled this dumb diet out of their rear and started passing it around.

Which probably explains the Cabbage Soup Diet’s litany of  seemingly arbitrary eating rules and restrictions:

• Day One:  Eat nothing but fruit (except for bananas) and as much cabbage soup as you want
• Day Two: Eat only veggies and cabbage soup, but “reward yourself” with a “big baked potato” with butter!
• Day Three: Eat all the  fruits and veggies you want, but no potato! Oh, and more cabbage soup.
• Day Four:  Eat as many bananas as you want, along with skim milk and lots of cabbage soup.
• Day Five:  It’s beef and tomato day on the Cabbage Soup Diet! Chow down on 10 to 20 ounces of steak and six fresh tomatos and of course, eat your yummy soup.

It goes on pretty much the same. You get the picture: Lots of cabbage soup and a bunch of silly eating rules.

Does the diet work?

Well, considering that people who try the Cabbage Soup diet also seem to be the same people who later try the Detox Diet, The Banana Diet, and The Tuna Fish Diet, it’s apparently not working that well.

It won’t kill you, but it probably won’t make you very happy either. Well … unless you really like cabbage.

4. Grapefruit Diet

Diet Aliases: Hollywood Diet, Mayo Diet

One of the least dangerous of the Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets, this one rests on some lose-and-free interpretation of medical research around the metabolism-boosting properties of grapefruit.

Yes, grapefruit may increase metabolism.

And there is some evidence that when eaten with carbohydrates in the same meal, grapefruit may interfere with the breakdown and digestion of carbohydrates, but like many fad diets, The Grapefruit Diet takes a little sliver of clinical research and broadens it far beyond where it deserves to be.

This diet, surprisingly, has been around since the 1930s.  The underlying promise of the diet is that when you eat grapefruit along with protein, it triggers magic fat burning. The Grapefruit Diet promises 10 lbs of weight loss during the 12 day diet.  Some versions of the plan include exercise recommendations, others don’t.

A typical meal plan has you eating only 3-4 times a day. Breakfast consists of bacon and eggs with grapefruit juice; lunch is meat, salad, grapefruit juice or a half grapefruit; dinner is meat, salad, veggies and … yes … more grapefruit.

The diet is basically high-fat, high-protein, light on starchy carbs, but high in fiberous carbs.  Most of your carbohydrates come in the form of fructose from the grapefruit juice.

The diet, like most of the other fad diets on this list, works on calorie-restriction.

You’ll be eating around 800-1,000 calories a day on this diet, which is generally far-below the recommended daily intake of calories required just to support an average person’s basic energy needs each day. If your goal is to lose body fat and spare the muscle, this diet will probably do more harm than good.

However, aside from the monotony of the Grapefruit Diet, there’s nothing particualary harmful about this diet over the short term. It’s just not particularly interesting, and far too low in calories.

5. Acai Berry Diet

Diet Aliases: Acai Berry Diet,  The Rachel Ray Diet, Acai Burn, Acai Berry Detox, Acai Diet, Acai Berry Cleanse, Acai Ultra Burn, Acai Berry and Colon Cleanse

The Acai Berry Diet wins the 2008-2009 award for the dumbest — and most annoying — diet to ever hit the Internet.

It’s hard to swing a dead Acai tree branch without stumbling across a banner ad, text link or fake blog page (usually by someone named “Jenny” who has three great children and a wonderful husband)  extolling the virtues how the Acai Berry diet and the regular cleansing of your innards will help you lose weight fast — up to 18 lbs in two weeks.

The Acai Berry Diet got started when celebrity docs Dr. Oz and Perricone mentioned that Acai berries were high in antioxidants on the Oprah Show.  That’s it. Nothing about acai berries and weight loss. Just a recommendation that they were a good fruit to eat on one of the most influential talk shows on television.

Seemingly within days,  a bunch of fad diet scammers went into action, launching the Acai Berry Diet at Web-speed. 

The centerpiece of the Acai Berry Diet marketing strategy was a bunch of fake blogs from women named ”Jenny”, “Linda” and “Susan” who all claimed they concocted this diet themselves and lost tons of weight using a combination of an Acai berry extract and colon cleanses.  

The blogs feature video clips of segments from Oprah talking about Acai berries (but not weight loss specifically), various videos of news segments on Acai berries and sometimes pictures of celebrities probably yanked off Google images holding a cup or bottle (which the reader, apparently, is supposed to assume is filled with the magic acai berry elixer) or appearing on the red carpet.

Of course, there are the obligatory before and after pictures of Jenny, Monica, Susan, or whatever fake person the marketers dreamed up to push ther two specific products:  an acai berry supplement and an a lovely colon cleansing product. The name of these particular products very, but they are always generally the same thing.

But here’s the rub: While Acai Berries do contain antioxidants,  analysis of acai berries has shown them to actually be lower in antioxidants than common foods like blueberries, blackberries, grapes, red wine, pomegranates and black tea.  Even Perricone and Oz admit this. And there is zero clinical evidence that they have any effect on weight loss.

In other words,  the Acai Berry Diet simply took the latest “fad food” and constructed a diet around it.  If it does cause weight loss, it’s only because of the calorie-restrictions that the diet puts in place. You could probably accomplish the same results by dropping some soda from your diet and just eating healthier.

While the Acai Berry Diet probably won’t hurt you, it will make your wallet or purse substantially lighter.

6. GM Diet

Diet Aliases: The General Motors Diet, The GM Diet, General Motors Weight Loss Program, GM Weight Loss Program

The GM Diet, or General Motors Diet, is another fad diet that’s been making it’s rounds for a couple of decades.

The diet claims that it was developed by General Motors in conjunction with the USDA and Johns Hopkins to help GM employees lose weight and get in better shape.

The GM Diet has all the hallmarks of an Internet fad diet and good urban legend.

It appeals to authority by using the name of a major corporation or company, references a prestiguous hospital, provides a sense of “exclusivity” in the form of language that says it’s intended exclusively for the “employees and dependents of General Motors” and makes wildly unrealistic claims about how much weight you can lose in a short duration of time. 

When you read first read the General Motors diet (and there are multiple variations of this diet available online), you can’t help but initially think it is legit:

The following diet and health program was developed for employees and dependents of General Motors, Inc. and is intended for their exclusive use. This program was developed in conjunction with a grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. It was field tested at the Johns Hopkins Research Centre and was approved for distribution by the Board of Directors, General Motors Corp. at a general meeting on August 15, 1985. General Motors Corp. wholly endorses this program and is making it available to all employees and families. This program will be available at all General Motors Food Service Facilities. It is management’s intention to facilitate a wellness and fitness program for everyone.

But once you read on, the plan starts to sound like every other dumb fat diet out there.  It  promises you’ll lose between 10-17 lbs per week by eating “foods that burn more calories than they contain” and through detoxification.

I live in Metro-Detroit, one of the fattest cities in the country and home to General Motors, and I can assure you that GM has never put it’s employees on any kind of diet that caused them to lose weight.  If anything, spending hours at your desk trying to figure out how to help your company avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy requires regular runs to Pizza Hut and Quiznos.

So when I read that the GM Diet was created by General Motors to help it’s employees lose weight, that didn’t sound like the General Motors I know.  

Turns out I was right, because when you dig into the details of the diet, it suddenly sounds a lot like our old friend The Cabbage Soup Diet. In fact, the GM Diet is the Cabbage Soup Diet!

The eating plan is almost identical. The only difference is soup you slurp down all day long as mysteriously morphed into something called “The GM Wonder Soup.”

So this fad diet may have a different name, but it still has all of the dumb characteristics of The Cabbage Soup Diet and nearly everyon other fad diet on this list.

Trying this diet will probably make you as miserable as all of those poor General Motors office workers having to put up with the thermostat being turned down in the buildings to keep the company from going belly up.

7. The Banana Diet

Diet Aliases: Morning Banana Diet, Asa Banana Diet

The Banana Diet  hit Japan by storm in the Fall of 2008,  literally causing a run on bananas and the country’s  first bona-fide “banana shortage.”

Here’s how the Banana Diet works:  Eat a banana (or as many of them as you want) for breakfast along with warm water. Eat anything you want for lunch and dinner, have a 3 pm snack, but eat no desserts after meals. Oh, and go to bed by midnight.

Created by Japanese Pharmacist Sumiko Watanabe (who ought to know better), this dumb fad diet operates on the same principle as the Cabbage Soup Diet and other mono-food fad diets — limit calories and food choices to discourage over-eating across the day.  

Watanabe says she put her husband on this whacky diet and he allegedly lost 37 pounds.  Of course, who knows what Mr. Watanabe was eating for breakfast before the diet, so simply having him substitute bananas for whatever he was eating before and cutting out desserts probably had more to do with his weight loss than the magic of all-you-can-eat bananas for breakfast. 

Oh, and did I mention that Mrs. Watanabe packaged this diet up in book form selling nearly a million copies in under a year.

Again, there is nothing magical about this diet or eating bananas.  

It simply works (if it even does work), by filling you up in the morning, which may discourage you from eating as much at lunch and getting rid of sugary desserts.  The Banana Diet’s advice to eat whatever your want for lunch or dinner isn’t going to win any nutrition awards, since you could concievable down a bucket of fried chicken for dinner and be “okay” on this diet.

Like cabbage, bananas are healthy foods, but just eating bananas for breakfast breaks the clean eating rule, which is to always combine a lean protein and source of healthy fats with your carbs. 

8. Tuna Fish Diet

Diet Aliases: 3 Day Tuna Fish Diet, Alabama Diet, 3-Day Cardiac Diet, Alabama Cardiac Diet

The Tuna Fish Diet  is really just another variation on single-food focused fad diets like the Grapefruit Diet or Cabbage Soup diet. 

It claims to be a diet that people eat before undergoing cardiac surgery, but the cholesterol, sodium and fat content of this diet is relatively high — making it a diet would be more likely to cause a person to end up in the cardiac unit, instead of keeping them out of it.

Again, like most of the Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diets we’ve looked at, this one also operates on the principle of calorie-reduction. In this case, following the diet would result in most people coming in far under their minimum calorie requirements just to suppor their basic daily energy needs.  You’d be hard pressed to find a single dietician or nutritionist who would advocate this truly dumb fad diet.

The diet claims that you can lose up to 10 pounds in three days, which should scream “Internet Fad Diet” to anyone who has tried one of these things.

So what’s so dumb about this diet?

Well, like the Cabbage Soup Diet, it has a bunch of seemingly arbitrary eating rules.  It also includes a bunch of foods that wouldn’t make anyone’s list of healthy choices for eating: hot dogs, ice cream, and saltine crackers. 

The only reason I can imagine for including ice cream and that processed meat monstrosity called “hot dogs” in this diet is to appeal to people who don’t want to make real changes to their eating habits.

“Hey, I get to eat ice cream and hot dogs! Sounds like the perfect diet for me.”

Ironically, tuna fish (a very healthy food) actually plays a fairly minor role in the entire diet — you basically eat a 1/2 cup of the stuff each day. The rest of the time, you pretty much starve — with the exception of the half cup of ice cream and hotdogs you get on day two and the ice cream on day three.

From a nutritional standpoint, you might as well call this the “junk food” diet, since it pretty much has you eating a bunch of empty calories.  Another flag around this diet is that there are multiple variations of it available online, all with very different eating plans.

9. Alkaline Diet

Fad diets are infamous for using slivers of science and fact quickly spinning them into psuedo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that that sounds so complicated it must be legit.  When it comes to extrapolating science to places it probably never should go, the Alkaline Diet wins the Oscar in the Top 10 Dumbest Fad Diet category of ”Bad Use of Science in a Diet.”

While not a weight loss diet per se, the Alkaline Diet does suggest that increased acidity in the body can create an environment that’s more conducieve to the development of chronic disease as well as weight gain and other disorders.

Here’s the gist of the Alkaline Diet: The theory is that as humans have evolved from hunter-gatherer societies to agriculturally-based societies, our consumption of acid-producing foods has increased. These foods include things like refined sugar, over-processed grains, coffee and tea, excessive dietary fat, too much protein and meat, etc.

At the same time, consumption of alkaline-producing foods like vegetables have decreased.  This has resulted in people being in a state of “low-grade acidosis” which leaches minerals from the body and overall causes all kinds of bad things.

Variations on the Alkaline Diet have been floating around for nearly a century.  However, the claims that increasing the alkalinity of your body will reverse aging, treat chronic disease or make you lose weight is not supported by any direct clinical studies showing that shifting your diet to alkaline foods can actually produce to meaninful shift your body’s PH.  Remember, the body tends toward homeostatis and with the exception of certain diseases, generally does a fine job of keeping your PH balanced.

Most of the “science” around Alkaline Diets extrapolates data from un-related studies that haven’t directly looked at diet. This is a common tactic among fad diet proponents: take an interesting tidbit of research and then generalize causation far beyond what you are scientifically-justified in doing.

The good news is that while the Alkaline Diet is generally built on a bed of scientific muck, including more alkaline-producing foods in your diet probably won’t cause any harm.

For the most part, the Alkaline Diet recommends reducing the consumption of certain foods that contain things like caffeine, alchohol, simple sugars, etc., and instead recommends eating more whole grains, complex carbs and whole fruits and vegetables — generally good things to include in a healthy, clean diet.  Just doing this can result in weight loss, because you’ll typically be substituting more nutritionally-dense, lower-calorie fresh foods for over-processed, higher-calorie foods.

Expecting the Alkaline Diet to transform your health and reverse aging is probably not realistic, but you may lose a few pounds. The key, as always, is balance.

10. Special K Diet

The number five Dumbest Fad Diet comes courtesy of the marketing folks over at Kellogg who put their collective brains together to come up with the “Special K Diet.”

Here’s the premise behind the Special K Diet:

Take a bland, over-processed, non-whole grain cereal that is actually less nutritious than Corn Flakes, layer on some Kellogg protein bars and shakes, and have people substitute a bowl of your cereal with skim milk for a couple of meals  each day and call it a “diet.” Package it all up with a slick website and marketing campaign and the next thing you know, Special K sales are up.

Yes, it can work.

But substituting in any lower calorie food for a higher calorie food can result in weight loss.  You could do the same by substituting in plain instant oatmeal for the pancake breakfast or burger for lunch.  Remember, calories-in/calories-out. It’s not that hard. There’s really nothing special about Special K.

The main problem with the Special K Diet is that it doesn’t fundamentally address developing better overall eating habits, which is really the only solution to lasting weight loss.

Special K isn’t a terrible cereal in terms of non-whole grain cereals go, but there are certainly far healthier choices for a cold or warm breakfast cereal that could play the same role as a bowl of Special K –  things like granola, oatmeal or even Kellogg’s own ”stealth” health food cereal Kashi.

From Fad Diet To Healthy Diet

While all of these fad diets will likely cause temporary weight gain, very few of them include exercise along with the diets. Several of them also have potential safety issues.

More importantly, few of these diets encourage the development of better long-term eating habits and while posing as “quick-fixes” won’t really fix anything for more than a few weeks at the most.

A much better approach is to change your overall eating behavior and choices, by following a more common-sense clean eating plan that emphasizes whole foods, complex carbydrates, lean protein, a mix of healthy fats and balanced meals 4-6 times a day.  Combine with regular exercise and you’ll have much more success over the long-haul.

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What is VO2 Max and How Does It Work?

Definition of VO2 Max

VO₂ Max is the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and utilize oxygen during exercise.  

Vo2 max is considered the standard indicator of cardiovascular or cardiorespiratory endurance and fitness.  Vo2 Max determines a person or athlete’s ability to perform prolonged aerobic activity.  VO2 Max is also known as known as maximal oxygen uptake, aerobic capacity, or maximal oxygen consumption.

Measuring VO2 Max

Vo2 Max VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen, in millilitres, one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight.  VO2 Max can be measured directly via a clinical VO2 Max test or can be estimated indirectly using a number of informal methods that allow you to calculate VO2 Max yourself.

Direct VO2 Max Tests

In a clinical setting, VO2 Max is determined by directly via gas analysis. 

This VO2 test wires the athlete or subject to a computer and has them breath directly into an apparatus that analyzes exhaled air while the subject runs on a treadmill.  Heart rate is also monitored via an EKG.  While this is the most accurate test of VO2 Max, it is also fairly expensive and not practical for most people.

Indirect VO2 Max Tests

Indirect testing of VO2 Max is more accessible for most people.

While the results are not exact, they can provide a basic idea of VO2 Max and overall cardiorespiratory endurance and fitness.  Also, most indirect tests have the subject perform cardiovascular exercise at sub-optimal levels, which makes them safer.

VO2 Max Ranges: A Comparison

Vo2 Max ranges will vary, depending on a person’s activity levels, gender, body composition and cardiovascular endurance. 

On average, sedentary individuals have VO2 max ranges of 30-40 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min);  casually walking or cycling each day will raise this to 40-50.  The VO2 Max of highly-trained athletes tends to be  in the 70-80 range.

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What Is EPOC or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption?

Definition of EPOC

EPOC, or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumptionis a measure of increased oxygen consumption after exercise or strenuous activity.  EPOC is also accompanied by a post-exercise increase in energy or fuel consumption  (also characterized as an increase in metabolism.)  EPOC is also known as “oxygen debt” or “oxygen deficit.”  In bodybuilding and fitness training circles it may also be called “exercise afterburn.”

Understanding Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC)

EPOC occurs after both aerobic (cardiovascular) exercise and anaerobic exercise like weight training. 

Following cardiovascular exercise or weight training, the body continues to require oxygen at a level that exceeds oxygen requirements when the exercise began.

There are a number of explanations for why oxygen consumption after exercise is higher than before exercise. Most of these revolve around the body restoring itself to a state of homeostasis. After exercise the body has to:

• Replenish energy stores (such as ATP and muscle glycogen)
• Re-oxygenate the blood
• Restore body temperature levels to a pre-exercise state
• Restore pre-exercise breathing and heart-rate levels

All of these processes require the consumption of additional oxygen, as well as energy, after exercise.

In other words, restoring the body to its pre-exercise state is work. And work means additional expenditure of energy beyond the energy consumed to perform that work.  

EPOC and HIIT

Clinical research suggests that EPOC is greatest after high intensity cardio training, specifically HIIT.  

However, this remains controversial, with some research indicating that the EPOC HIIT connection is nothing more than a myth.

Research from Bahr and Sejersted published in the Journal of Applied Physiology has shown that as the intensity of cardiovascular exercise increases, so too does the EPOC and post-exercise calorie/energy consumption.  The duration of EPOC also increases with intensity.

However, the actual amount of EPOC and the duration is widely disputed.

 Some studies show EPOC persisting for up to 24 hours following completion of high intensity cardio, while others challenge this, showing EPOC levels returning to normal in less than 90 minutes.

Even the studies that do show prolonged increases in EPOC lasting up to 24 hours have to be taken in context.

A study by Maehlum et al.and published in the journal Metabolism,  found that increases in VO2 of  5% on average persisted in trainees for up to 24 hours who had performed high intensity cardio training for 90 minutes at 70% VO2Max.

However, for a person on a 2000 calorie diet, a 5 percent increase in VO2 over 24 hours would result in an extra 25 calories being burned as a result of the EPOC effect. While that’s better than zero extra calories, it’s not particularly significant.

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