Answer Fitness®: Practical Fitness Advice for Everyone

Does Whey Protein Help With Weight Loss? | Ask The Fitness Nerd

Is the whey protein-weight loss connection fact or fiction? Find out from the Fitness Nerd if using whey protein for weight loss is “yeah” or “nay. “

Dear Fitness Nerd,

I have a question for you around whey protein and weight loss.

I would consider myself to be pretty fit. I lift weights, run and do Body Pump and am pretty lean already, although I don’t know my exact body fat right now.  I’d really like to make this the year that I get flat abs, but I still have some belly fat I’d like to make go away. Nothing major, just a little “pooch” and a smidge more side and back fat than I want …. we’re not talking a muffin top or anything like that though.

My girlfriend suggested that I try drinking more whey protein to lose weight. Her boyfriend is in really good shape and drinks a ton of protein shakes and she seems to believe that’s why he is so lean. She’s in great shape herself and uses a lot of whey protein, so I’m inclined to believe her.

What are your thoughts here?  I really just want to lose those last couple of lbs of belly fat. I’m fairly tall and already pretty toned, it’s just my damn belly that I want to tighten up. Can whey protein help with this?

By the way, I already drink whey protein powder once a day in soy milk, usually in the morning and sometimes after I work out.  Thanks for your time. Alicia (Long Island, NY)

Alicia, this question pops up a lot on discussion boards and in places like Yahoo Answers and Yedda.  So you’re not the only one who is trying to figure out if there is really a connection between whey protein and weight loss.  I probably see a variation on your question at least 2-3 times a week.

There are definitely a lot of “opinions” floating around out there around whey protein for weight loss. There’s some truth to them, but they are also tied up in a lot of myths, as well. So the trick is to understand exactly what whey protein is (and isn’t) so you can come to your own conclusions based on the facts.

What Is Whey Protein?

Whey is just a form of protein that is naturally-present in diary products like skim milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc. If you drink a glass of milk, you are already consuming some whey proteins. The whey protein that you are talking about is in a powdered form. Basically, the manufacturer takes liquid whey and “dries it”, making whey protein powder – a form of whey that is portable and easy to reconstitute.

So What Does Whey Protein Do For A Person?

The main benefit to whey protein is that it is easily and quickly digested by the body.

The body is also able to quickly utilize most of the amino acids in whey protein to help with tissue repair and recovery after exercise.  The protein in whey has a high biological value (BV), meaning it’s easily absorbed by the body. Unlike other proteins, like casein (another form of protein in milk), the speed at which whey protein is digested makes it an ideal source of protein immediately following workouts when your body needs amino acids quickly to aid with recovery.

Whey protein, especially whey protein isolate (an even more concentrated form of whey protein vs. whey protein concentrate), is also very low in fat and carbohydrates. This is because the refinement process used to create whey protein powder removes nearly all of the fat and sugars in the liquid, leaving a final product that is almost 100% protein by volume.  So this makes whey protein popular among dieters and people who are trying to limit carbohydrates or fat in their diet.

Whey protein has other properties that may have health benefits, including the presence of certain biologically active compounds that may improve immunity and even stave off muscle wasting. However, the main reason people consume whey protein is to encourage lean muscle growth and sometimes as a meal replacement.

Using Whey Protein For Weight Loss

Okay, now that you know what whey protein is, let’s tackle your question about whey protein and weight loss.

First, it’s important to understand that there is nothing particularly magical about whey protein that will directly cause you to melt off that last pound or two of belly fat and get abs like Jessica Biel. Whey protein is not an anabolic steroid — it’s a food.

In fact, the goal of drinking whey protein is usually to add weight (in the form of additional muscle), not to lose it. 

That said, because your real goal here isn’t to lose scale weight, but to lose body fat and change your body fat percentage to favor lean tissue, including some additional whey protein in your diet could help you become leaner overall … and yes, that would probably include losing some belly fat.

Continue reading Does Whey Protein Help With Weight Loss? | Ask The Fitness Nerd…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Will I Get Bulky Muscles from Judo? | Ask The Fitness Nerd

Judo will not make you look fat. Exercise doesn’t necessarily equate to bulky muscles for women. The Fitness Nerd explains why.

Hi Fitness Nerd,

I started taking judo a couple of months ago because I really enjoy doing it rather than using it as a way to keep fit. While I don’t mind gaining a bit of muscle tone, I’m worried about bulking up as I’m a very small female who is a good weight and thick chunky muscles would just make me look fat. Is there anyway I can encourage my muscles to remain small but defined rather than grow big through diet? - Sophie

Sophie, you can relax. The chances of you “bulking up” and looking like a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger are pretty slim. In fact, I’d say they are close to zero. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Women Don’t Have The Hormones for Huge Muscles

First, most women don’t have the hormonal environment necessary to put on massive amounts of muscle.  Adding muscle requires testosterone — and while women do have some testosterone — they typically don’t have enough to build the freaky muscles that you see on most bodybuilders — male or female. Yes, there are exceptions (and typically they involve the use of anabolic steroids or unusual male hormone levels in women ), but these are quite rare. So unless you have an atypical endocrine system for your gender or are on the testosterone patch, I wouldn’t sweat it for one minute.

2. Body Weight Training Doesn’t Maximize Muscle Mass

Second, judo is an activity that doesn’t involve the introduction of non-body-weight resistance. Building muscle requires consistently overloading the muscles with a progressive amount of weight during weight and resistance training.  This process of overloading the muscles is what builds muscle mass. With judo, you are basically training yourself against your own weight (or against someone else’s in some cases)– which more or less is fairly consistent. While this can certainly build strength, balance and co-ordination (and some muscle mass), it’s typically not enough to add lots of muscle. But again, even if you were pumping iron heavy daily, you’d probably be pretty pleased with the results. So maybe you should try it.

What it will do, is challenge a lot of stabilizer muscles that you might not normally use in your everyday activities, as well as burn some extra calories, which can help you strip off body fat. When people experience a “firming” of their muscles, it’s usually do primarily to a loss in body fat. You can have muscle, but if it’s wrapped in fat, it will seem soft and “jiggly.” Lose the fat, and suddely that lean, gorgeous muscle underneath starts to shine.

Continue reading Will I Get Bulky Muscles from Judo? | Ask The Fitness Nerd…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Why Workout Routines for Toning Fail | Fitness Tips

If your fitness goal is to get a ‘toned body’, you’ve probably been doing all the wrong things with your workout routine. Learn what “toned” really means and how you can achieve it.

It’s almost impossible to pick up a fitness magazine and not find a reference to “toning your abs”, “toning your butt” or “toning your legs or thighs.”

But I’m going to let you in on one of the best kept secrets in fitness: There really is no such thing as “toning” or being “toned” — at least in the sense of what people normally associate with ”toned muscle” or a ”toned body.”  

There is a concept in anatomy and physiology called residual muscle contraction or tonus, but it refers to the continuous and partial contraction of a muscle to help stabilize posture and balance. It has nothing to do with the outward appearance of your body or whether you have tight glutes and washboard abs. You can be out of shape and struggle to climb a flight of stairs and still have muscle tonus.

So what’s the story? What is this “toning” that everyone is always talking about?

How the “Toned Body” Myth Got Started

At some point years ago, fitness writers, personal trainers and people who really ought to know better started using the term “toned” to describe individuals with high muscle mass to low body fat ratios. Instead of saying that an athlete, fitness model or highly-in-shape person was “lean and muscular” they started saying the person was “toned.”

Why this happened isn’t exactly clear. My theory is that the words “muscle” and “muscular” are scary and intimidating for some people, especially to many women who have been conditioned to run as fast as they can from the dreaded “M-Word.” The seemingly endless stream of articles online and in major fitness magazines instructing women how not to ”bulk up” and avoid become “muscular” via workout routines for “toning” is a major contributor to this myth.

So fitness writers and trainers started to use “toned” as a way of describing being muscular, without actually saying the word “muscular.” It seemed innocent enough, and it allowed them to not have to get into big, long, involved and uncomfortable discussions with their clients about why they should top obsessing on becoming too “bulky.”

You Can’t Diet or Treadmill Your Way to “Toned”

The problem is, to get a body that fits most people’s definition of “toned”, you have to weight train. And you generally have to go heavy. And you need to put on muscle mass. And you’ll have to drop your body fat ratio.  That’s the secret. Those four things. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a male or a female. It applies equally regardless of gender.

This may seem like an issue of semantics and a little thing, but it’s not. The problem is that “toned” has become a euphemism for “lean and muscular”, yet most people don’t realize that. They think “toned” is something you achieve by dieting, doing endless bouts of cardio and maybe occasionally doing some pilates or high-rep, low-weight resistance training.

So by obscuring what “toning” really means, we’ve doomed all kinds of people to pursuing toning workout routines that will likely never allow them to achieve their fitness, physique or body-shaping goals. They’ll continue to avoid any kind of serious weight training, go too light on the resistance, focus on high reps that only improve muscle endurance (not size or shape),  put way too much time and attention on ”functional” exercises and try to stair-step their way to a “toned” body.

And when it doesn’t work, they’ll go seek out the newest “30 Minute Body Toning Workout” and get right back on the hamster wheel again, only to be frustrated in three weeks when nothing has changed.  Maybe that’s how you sell fitness magazines and personal training sessions, but I’d prefer to think we’re in the business of helping people succeed, not just pushing services or content.

There’s A Whole ‘Lotta Toning Going On

So how pervasive is this term or concept of “toning?”

It’s probably one of the most frequently asked questions in the Diet and Fitness section of Yahoo Answers — especially among women (although I do see some men using it.) Typically, it will come in the form of a question like: “How can I get toned without becoming bulky?” or “Does anyone have any toning exercises that won’t make me put on muscle.”

Of course, if they hadn’t been sold the “myth of toning” and understood exactly what that term really meant, their questions would be absurd.

Continue reading Why Workout Routines for Toning Fail | Fitness Tips…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!