IMPROVING YOUR BODY COMPOSITION: An Evidence-based Approach

Improve your resting metabolic rate (RMR).

There’s a proportional relationship between fat free mass (lean muscle) and metabolism.

Strength training increases lean muscle tissue; and muscle tissue for the most part is what

determines your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).

As you increase muscle tissue, RMR increases; as you lose muscle tissue, RMR decreases. The

only way to combat the gradual decline of muscle tissue with age (called sarcopenia) is through

proper strength training.

Feel the calorie burn.

Strength training acutely increases your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) for 1-3 days following the

workout (post-exercise burn). You’ll burn between 7 -11% more calories for 1-3 days following every

strength-training workout that you perform. This increase of RMR is largely dependent on training

to momentary muscular failure (MMF), as encouraged at The Strength Room. Strength training

alone doesn’t increase RMR; high intensity training is the key.

All or nothing.

Cover all of the major muscles groups in a given exercise session. The more muscle that you train,

the greater potential improvements in Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).

Snack attack.

Consume a post-workout snack containing 20 grams of protein. Research supports that

post-exercise nutrition enhances muscle growth and promotes fat loss.

Take recovery seriously.

In order for muscle to respond positively (grow stronger & leaner) after a HIT workout, it requires

rest and recovery in order to rebuild and over compensate with stronger, leaner muscles. Recent

research supports that two high intensity workouts a week produce similar results as three workouts

a week. Adequate sleep plays as much of a role as infrequent strength workouts for better, faster

results.

Reduce your calories.

You won’t lose significant amounts of fat if your calorie intake doesn’t change. You can eat healthy

foods, train hard and perform cardio, but you won’t maximise fat loss and body composition

changes if calories don’t reduce.

High Intensity vs steady as you go.

Steady state cardio (like walking or running) expends far fewer calories than we assume and research

indicates it’s not closely correlated with fat loss. However, what research is now telling us is short

burst cardio exercise, interspersed with brief recovery periods, is more efficient than traditional

cardio. The HIIT method more effectively exhausts energy reserves (muscle glycogen) from the

muscles and liver. This ultimately gets replenished at the expense of our fat stores during exercise

and post-workout.

Step it up.

Avoid being comatose by meeting your minimum daily quota of 10,000 steps. Ditch the chair

when possible; stand while talking on the phone. Go and see a colleague instead of sending an

email. If you take a train to work, get off at an earlier stop and walk the rest of the way. Stuck at the

airport? Don’t sit, walk around.

Improve your NEAT.

According to the Mayo Clinic in the US, the secret of a long and healthy life lies in improving your

NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). NEAT is about the calories we burn through

ordinary everyday living – from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night. What’s more,

NEAT even includes all the movements you do while you’re sleeping!

Get a move on.

Research has clearly shown that we need to move more. Short bursts of activity can be as effective

as much longer periods of continuous activity at improving blood sugar and fat levels.

Don’t be a human statue.

To keep the fuels moving through our systems we need to be moving every half hour or so.

However, statistics show that many of us spend 12 hours a day on average in a chair!

Keep your fuels moving.

Being seated doesn’t just burn a bare minimum of calories – sinister things happen when we’re

inactive for too long. Prolonged sitting has been linked to a sharp reduction in activity of an important

enzyme called lipoprotein lipase which breaks down blood fats and makes them available as a fuel to

the muscles. The good news is, if you can keep the fuel moving (by moving in some way or another

every 30 minutes after sitting), the increase in lipoprotein lipase will help keep your triglycerides and

fats in the blood more at bay; decreasing your risk of heart disease and onset of Type 2 diabetes.

Excuse yourself.

Keeping on the move isn’t just a good way of burning calories. It also has a big impact on your

health. If you do spend a lot of your work life sitting, find an excuse to get up and move – every

30 minutes.

Smaller plates, smaller waistline.

Studies show that larger popcorn boxes, bigger dishes and taller (super-size) cups have conditioned

us to rely on visually determining when we’re full. In the case of popcorn, subjects ate up to one third

more popcorn than had they otherwise been served in smaller containers; despite a lack of hunger!

So use smaller cups, plates and serving sizes to eat less. And rely more on your stomach to

determine when you’re full.

Butter is healthier than the bread.

Surrounding a healthy food with two slices of bread changes the entire equation. Accordingly,

eating two slices of whole wheat bread increases your blood sugar with more than two tablespoons

of pure sugar! This is not a bad thing in and of itself, only if you forget about other possible sugar

spiking carbs consumed in the same sitting.

The thing you don’t want is to trigger an over abundant level of the hormone insulin which is also

a very powerful fat storage hormone. As one leading researcher on obesity put it, “The next time

you consume buttered toast; consider that the butter may be healthier than the bread.”

“No bread thanks.”

When you’re offered complimentary bread before a meal, ask for a healthier alternative.

Or simply pass.

Hunger = Bad choices.

The hungrier you are, the harder it is to resist unhealthy foods. Studies have found the brain focuses

on feeding itself high-calorie foods to bring blood sugar levels back to normal.

Select a healthy standby snack today. Carry it with you wherever you go.

Put junk in the trash.

If a food item is clearly bad for your health, trash it. And don’t feel guilty. You’re not wasting food,

you’re lengthening your health span.

Food fight: Ghrelin vs Leptin.

The battle over eating isn’t between your willpower and the chocolate éclairs; it’s between

your brain chemicals.

The satiety centre in your brain is constantly under siege by the hunger hormone

Ghrelin. Ghrelin wants to make you eat.

Your stomach secretes Ghrelin in pulses every half hour sending subtle, subliminal messages to your

brain. When you’re really hungry, those messages come faster, amplified every 20 minutes or so.

The key is to keep those Ghrelin ‘gremlins’ from making too much noise by choosing foods that

satisfy your hunger longer like nuts or low GI foods. That way your satiety hormone, Leptin, will keep

you feeling satisfied.

Control your hormones!

There’ll be times when you can’t always control your hormone levels; when the hunger hormone

Ghrelin outslugs your satiety hormone Leptin. Develop a list of emergency foods to satisfy you when

cravings get the best of you – a handful of nuts, a little guacamole, Organ® protein drink - to name

just a few.

The 25-minute meal rule.

If you down your food faster than a MiniVac you don’t give your satiety hormones time enough to

kick-in the “you’re getting full” message.

As a result you tend to keep eating – and end up eating too much. So slowing down and timing

your meal to 25 minutes will give your brain and stomach time to realise you’re getting full.

Go nuts!

Eating nuts does not create the calorie intake that you might expect, because 5 - 15% of calories

are not absorbed by the intestinal system. That’s because the nuts’ skin and how well we chew

nuts influence digestion.

Added bonus: The slow release of calories throughout the intestinal system leads to prolonged satiety.

CCK aka Crucial Craving Killer hormone.

CCK technical name is cholecystokinin that provides a very short-term, intense message that you’re

stomach feels fuller than a Baywatch bathing suit.

As an appetite supressing hormone that’s stimulated by the presence of fat, you can trick you’re hormonal

system by eating a little healthy fat twenty-five minutes before your meal (65 or so calories of fat in the form

of six walnuts- halves, twelve almonds, or twenty peanuts). By doing so, you’ll stimulate production of CCK,

which will both communicate with your brain and slow down your stomach emptying to keep you feeling

full.

Eat smaller.

Stomach growling stimulates appetite, but growling doesn’t tell you how hungry you are. It tells you

to eat, but not how much to eat. That’s why smaller, more frequent mini meals are so important.

Having a big meal quickly won’t stop you from wanting to eat a few hours later.

So let your appetite supressing hormone (CCK) act; it takes about twenty-five minutes to kick-in and

in return decreases your desire to eat.

Yo, don’t yo-yo!

When you attempt to lose weight in the absence of strength training, you stand to lose both muscle

and metabolism. What makes matters worse, when losing weight indiscriminately (fat-free mass

verses your fat mass) you eventually end up regaining the weight back in the form of more fat, not

muscle. When you continually lose and gain weight, you end up gaining proportionately even more

fat, because of the muscle loss and reduced metabolic resting rate that takes place every time you

lose. So don’t yo-yo!

Evidence-based workouts

- nothing but the truth.

In an industry full of lofty claims, unsafe practices and false hope, The Strength Training Studio stands for fitness integrity.

Our programmes and advice are not based on personal beliefs or unfounded opinions, but rather evidence-based truths that are scientifically robust and proven by research.

That’s why our clients are quickly and safely rewarded with more strength, muscular leanness, reduced fat, and renewed energy.

The truth. We believe our clients deserve nothing less.