Here's an article on Cinnamon I thought was interesting. Whether or not it is entirely true I don't know.
Josh.
Unique Spice That Beats Abdominal Fat
by Mike Geary
Ok, this spice that I'm going to mention is one of the
most overlooked, but healthiest spices in the world...
You might even call it a "fat burning spice"... in a roundabout way.
And yes, it can actually help you win the battle against
abdominal fat if you use it daily...I'll explain why.
Here are some other benefits of this miracle spice:
*controls blood sugar levels
*helps maintain insulin sensitivity
*a very powerful antioxidant
*may have antibacterial and antifungal properties
*and dozens of other benefits
So what is this miracle spice?
Well... it's good old tasty Cinnamon!
Although cinnamon does not directly increase fat burning
(such as by increasing metabolic rate, etc), it CAN actually
help you to burn off abdominal fat and get leaner through
an indirect link.
Here's how...
Although cinnamon has dozens of health benefits,
the main benefit that will help you to get leaner is
through it's strong effect on controlling blood sugar
levels in your body.
In a study published in 2003 in the medical journal
Diabetes Care, groups were split into people taking
1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon per day in capsule form
(the equivalent of approx 1/4th to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon).
The results of the study showed that all 3 amounts
of cinnamon reduced fasting blood glucose levels
by 18-29% after 40 days.
Cinnamon can also increase insulin sensitivity,
which essentially means that it is helping your
body to control blood sugar while simultaneously
allowing your body to produce less insulin.
As you know, chronically high insulin levels
can make your body pack on the blubber.
How to harness this to lose more fat...
One possible way to benefit from cinnamon to
lose more fat is to use cinnamon daily in your
meals when you can, such as in yogurt or cottage
cheese, in smoothies, oatmeal, or anything else
you can think of where it would go well.
Also, you could use a cinnamon capsule
before each of your meals.
This could help to control blood sugar and insulin
response from your meals and thereby control your
appetite and cravings throughout the day... hence,
helping you to lose body fat more effectively over time.
So now you can see that not only is cinnamon a powerful
antioxidant that can help you stay youthful longer, it can also
help you to control blood sugar and get a leaner body!
Note: please make sure to consult your doctor before
adding any new foods or spices to your nutrition plan if
you are taking any medications or have food allergies.
Go to the link below to discover over a dozen more
unique foods, spices, and weird styles of workouts
that help to burn your abdominal fat faster:
==> http://TruthAboutAbs.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Mon 8th Feb.
We did a full body routine but added wall squats and front barbell raises. We focused on working for 45 sec each set, no set number of reps, just time. We rested about 25 seconds between sets. Same exercises as last week.
My weight loss report from last week:
Saturday night I weighed in at 146.0 which is almost 9 pounds lost in the week. However I was also fasting Saturday from noon on. Sunday I went pretty crazy with carbs for lunch and dinner to try to bring the Glycogen and water stores back up. I was hoping that would give me a more accurate fat loss number. I weighed in at 152.0 so 2.4 pounds of fat possibly in a week. That is really good for not having really starved myself. I will continue to watch the scale and get a better average for the week. I'm going to eat pretty high calories today to make sure my body resets my metobolism, then I will go for another week.
My weight loss report from last week:
Saturday night I weighed in at 146.0 which is almost 9 pounds lost in the week. However I was also fasting Saturday from noon on. Sunday I went pretty crazy with carbs for lunch and dinner to try to bring the Glycogen and water stores back up. I was hoping that would give me a more accurate fat loss number. I weighed in at 152.0 so 2.4 pounds of fat possibly in a week. That is really good for not having really starved myself. I will continue to watch the scale and get a better average for the week. I'm going to eat pretty high calories today to make sure my body resets my metobolism, then I will go for another week.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Intersting post by Tom Venuto
Once an Endomorph Always an Endomorph? (Can Your Body Type Change?)
Tom Venuto
Are you an ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph body type? To maximize your results, regardless of whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, it’s helpful to know your body type and adjust your approach according to your type. But a big question that almost no one has ever answered is, “Does your body type change over time?” If so, then what? Do you have to totally change your nutrition and training again? And if your body type doesn’t change, does this mean you are stuck being a fat endomorph for the rest of your life, doomed because of genetics? Read today’s blog post to find out..
Somatotype is a 3-part, 7-point body type rating scale developed by a guy named Sheldon back around 1940 or so. Ectomorphs are the linear, bony, lean types, mesomorphs are the naturally muscular body types (yeah, the ones we hate!), and endormorphs are the ones with the round body shapes and the genetic tendency toward storing more body fat.
Generally, you have a combination body type, which is why you are scored with 3 numbers (Arnold Schwarzenneger in his bodybuilding prime: think pure mesomorph with the highest score of 7).
The question is, Does somatotype change? this is a very interesting question that has been asked and debated before both by the layperson (often bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts) and by scientists.
Two of those scientists were JE Lindsay Carter, a physical education professor from San Diego State University and Barbara Heath, and Anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania.
There was initially a lot of debate and antagonism provoked by the classic Sheldon system of classifying human body types (“somatotyping”), because initially, Sheldon was very rigid in his insistence that body types were permanent and did not change.
However, Heath and Carter proposed that it was plain to see that body types DID change due to normal growth, aging, physical training and dietary deprivation (they cited the Minnesota starvation study, where subjects started out looking somewhat mesomorphic and ended up looking like ectomorphic POW camp victims, literally).
Heath and Carter weren’t trying to dismiss somatotpying, they supported it and wanted to validate it.
However, they wanted to address the shortcomings of the somatotyping method and one of those was the fact that the Sheldon system didn’t accommodate for changes in physique as a result of training and nutrition.
In their voluminous 1990 textbook on the subject, Heath and Carter define somatotype as:
“A quantitative description of the present shape and composition of the human body. It is expressed in a 3 number rating, representing three components of physique: (1) endomorphy, (2) mesomorphy and (3) ectomorphy. The somatotype can be used to record changes in physique and to estimate gross biological differences and similarities among human beings. This method of somatotyping is sensitive to changes in physique over time and is used for rating both sexes at all ages.”
Look at a guy like John Bartlett for example, one of our inner circle contributing authors and an outstanding natural competitive bodybuilder. When you see him today and you ask what is his body type, you would say, “MESOMORPH all the way!”
That’s because today he is ripped and muscular
But if you look at his before picture and ask “what is this guy’s body type” you would say, “Endomorph” all the way!
Well, which is it? Or did his body type change? Clearly, John gained a lot of muscle and lost a lot of fat and looks totally different today. So could we say his body type changed? If we go by current outward appearance, then yes, absolutely.
But does this mean his body type really changed or did he overcome an inherent endomorph body type to achieve where he is now?
Or, to play devil’s advocate here, was he always a mesomorph inherently and he just really let himself go for a while and he was just returning to his normal body type of mesomorph?
These are interesting questions. The Heath-Carter method simply includes body composition as part of the rating scale of a person’s body type and says that you can rate someone based on how they look now. That includes bone structure (which changes little or not at all after adulthood) AND body composition (which can change throughout life). So you could say John was an Endomorph and is now a Mesomorph. Predominantly Mesomorph is his present classification.
However, at the same time, we could say that a person DOES have an inherent body type or set point - a physique that they will gravitate towards in the absence of circumstances or concerted efforts to change it.
I addressed this issue of changing body types versus an inherent (or “permanent” body type) in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM). The way I explained it is that I said your true body type is what you will gravitate to naturally when you are not in a highly trained state. It’s your inherent tendency. In that respect, you could say somatotype does not change, while body composition does.
In chapter 5 of BFFM I said there were three additional ways to know your inherent body type beyond Sheldon’s scale, which take into account changes in physique due to training and nutrition:
1.How you looked before you took up training (your “natural” body shape)
2.How you respond to training and nutrition (ease of muscle gain or fat loss)
3.How you respond to de-training (how well you retain lean mass and low body fat or how quickly you lose lean mass and gain fat on cessation of training)
If you wanted to make this even MORE complex, we could look at somatotyping by considering not just the outward bone structure and body composition of an individual, but also the metabolic (interior) characteristics
My “Burn The Fat” system of body typing is like a combination of:
(1) Metabolic typing (internal metabolic characteristics like carb tolerance)
(2) Somatotyping (external body shape - linearity or roundness, fatness or leanness)
(3) Miscellaneous other genetic factors.
That would be a pretty good three-part body typing system that covers the concerns about changing body types, individual metabolic types (“carb intolerant types” or protein types, etc), and genetics (which is especially relevant since obesity genes have been identified fairly recently).
I hear criticisms of the somatotyping system all the time, where people say it is not useful. I disagree. Yes, it’s perhaps too crude of a system to base your entire training and nutrition plan upon, but I believe it’s very helpful as a general tool to “KNOW THYSELF”.
In other words, if you are inherently an endomorph and you KNOW IT, then you know darn well what happens when you don’t do any cardio. You know what happens when you cheat four or five times in a week. You know what happens when you slack off. You gravitate towards gaining fat, because that is your body type’s tendency! So you can adjust your training, nutrition and lifestyle accordingly.
If you are an ectomorph, then you know what happens when you skip meals… you don’t gain any muscle! You know what happens when you do too much cardio… you don’t gain any muscle, or you lose some!, etc. etc.
And if you’re a mesomorph…. did I mention…. we hate you!
If you’d like to learn more, chapter 5 in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is about body typing. It’s full of some really valuable and motivating lessons about knowing yourself, your body and your genetics and understanding the importance of taking personal responsibility, regardless of your hereditary predispositions. If you already have the book, it’s worth re-reading periodically.
Tom Venuto
Author, Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle
Founder & CEO, Burn The Fat Inner Circle
Tom Venuto
Are you an ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph body type? To maximize your results, regardless of whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, it’s helpful to know your body type and adjust your approach according to your type. But a big question that almost no one has ever answered is, “Does your body type change over time?” If so, then what? Do you have to totally change your nutrition and training again? And if your body type doesn’t change, does this mean you are stuck being a fat endomorph for the rest of your life, doomed because of genetics? Read today’s blog post to find out..
Somatotype is a 3-part, 7-point body type rating scale developed by a guy named Sheldon back around 1940 or so. Ectomorphs are the linear, bony, lean types, mesomorphs are the naturally muscular body types (yeah, the ones we hate!), and endormorphs are the ones with the round body shapes and the genetic tendency toward storing more body fat.
Generally, you have a combination body type, which is why you are scored with 3 numbers (Arnold Schwarzenneger in his bodybuilding prime: think pure mesomorph with the highest score of 7).
The question is, Does somatotype change? this is a very interesting question that has been asked and debated before both by the layperson (often bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts) and by scientists.
Two of those scientists were JE Lindsay Carter, a physical education professor from San Diego State University and Barbara Heath, and Anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania.
There was initially a lot of debate and antagonism provoked by the classic Sheldon system of classifying human body types (“somatotyping”), because initially, Sheldon was very rigid in his insistence that body types were permanent and did not change.
However, Heath and Carter proposed that it was plain to see that body types DID change due to normal growth, aging, physical training and dietary deprivation (they cited the Minnesota starvation study, where subjects started out looking somewhat mesomorphic and ended up looking like ectomorphic POW camp victims, literally).
Heath and Carter weren’t trying to dismiss somatotpying, they supported it and wanted to validate it.
However, they wanted to address the shortcomings of the somatotyping method and one of those was the fact that the Sheldon system didn’t accommodate for changes in physique as a result of training and nutrition.
In their voluminous 1990 textbook on the subject, Heath and Carter define somatotype as:
“A quantitative description of the present shape and composition of the human body. It is expressed in a 3 number rating, representing three components of physique: (1) endomorphy, (2) mesomorphy and (3) ectomorphy. The somatotype can be used to record changes in physique and to estimate gross biological differences and similarities among human beings. This method of somatotyping is sensitive to changes in physique over time and is used for rating both sexes at all ages.”
Look at a guy like John Bartlett for example, one of our inner circle contributing authors and an outstanding natural competitive bodybuilder. When you see him today and you ask what is his body type, you would say, “MESOMORPH all the way!”
That’s because today he is ripped and muscular
But if you look at his before picture and ask “what is this guy’s body type” you would say, “Endomorph” all the way!
Well, which is it? Or did his body type change? Clearly, John gained a lot of muscle and lost a lot of fat and looks totally different today. So could we say his body type changed? If we go by current outward appearance, then yes, absolutely.
But does this mean his body type really changed or did he overcome an inherent endomorph body type to achieve where he is now?
Or, to play devil’s advocate here, was he always a mesomorph inherently and he just really let himself go for a while and he was just returning to his normal body type of mesomorph?
These are interesting questions. The Heath-Carter method simply includes body composition as part of the rating scale of a person’s body type and says that you can rate someone based on how they look now. That includes bone structure (which changes little or not at all after adulthood) AND body composition (which can change throughout life). So you could say John was an Endomorph and is now a Mesomorph. Predominantly Mesomorph is his present classification.
However, at the same time, we could say that a person DOES have an inherent body type or set point - a physique that they will gravitate towards in the absence of circumstances or concerted efforts to change it.
I addressed this issue of changing body types versus an inherent (or “permanent” body type) in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM). The way I explained it is that I said your true body type is what you will gravitate to naturally when you are not in a highly trained state. It’s your inherent tendency. In that respect, you could say somatotype does not change, while body composition does.
In chapter 5 of BFFM I said there were three additional ways to know your inherent body type beyond Sheldon’s scale, which take into account changes in physique due to training and nutrition:
1.How you looked before you took up training (your “natural” body shape)
2.How you respond to training and nutrition (ease of muscle gain or fat loss)
3.How you respond to de-training (how well you retain lean mass and low body fat or how quickly you lose lean mass and gain fat on cessation of training)
If you wanted to make this even MORE complex, we could look at somatotyping by considering not just the outward bone structure and body composition of an individual, but also the metabolic (interior) characteristics
My “Burn The Fat” system of body typing is like a combination of:
(1) Metabolic typing (internal metabolic characteristics like carb tolerance)
(2) Somatotyping (external body shape - linearity or roundness, fatness or leanness)
(3) Miscellaneous other genetic factors.
That would be a pretty good three-part body typing system that covers the concerns about changing body types, individual metabolic types (“carb intolerant types” or protein types, etc), and genetics (which is especially relevant since obesity genes have been identified fairly recently).
I hear criticisms of the somatotyping system all the time, where people say it is not useful. I disagree. Yes, it’s perhaps too crude of a system to base your entire training and nutrition plan upon, but I believe it’s very helpful as a general tool to “KNOW THYSELF”.
In other words, if you are inherently an endomorph and you KNOW IT, then you know darn well what happens when you don’t do any cardio. You know what happens when you cheat four or five times in a week. You know what happens when you slack off. You gravitate towards gaining fat, because that is your body type’s tendency! So you can adjust your training, nutrition and lifestyle accordingly.
If you are an ectomorph, then you know what happens when you skip meals… you don’t gain any muscle! You know what happens when you do too much cardio… you don’t gain any muscle, or you lose some!, etc. etc.
And if you’re a mesomorph…. did I mention…. we hate you!
If you’d like to learn more, chapter 5 in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is about body typing. It’s full of some really valuable and motivating lessons about knowing yourself, your body and your genetics and understanding the importance of taking personal responsibility, regardless of your hereditary predispositions. If you already have the book, it’s worth re-reading periodically.
Tom Venuto
Author, Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle
Founder & CEO, Burn The Fat Inner Circle
Fri. Feb 5
We did the same routine as Wednesday but with an added max. effort set at the end.
Hack squats
pull-ups
chair dips
stiff-legged dead lifts
military press
dumbbell snatch
push-ups
single arm rows
Superset each exercise with another, 20-30 seconds rest between sets, three sets of each, last set for a personal record. I think this may be the first week we have had 100% attendance for the full week. We also went harder than we ever have before and no one was complaining. I'm sure everyone will feel it by tomorrow. Congratulations!
My Fat loss report:
I was down to 149.0 lbs last night, so another big jump. I was afraid my strength was going down as well, but in this mornings workout I broke records in all my lifts except incline press. I almost quit after the first set of presses I was so disappointed. Fortunately I pressed on and found all my other lifts in great shape. I almost told myself I must be getting weaker from the diet and I shouldn't try to lift hard. Wrong! Turned out to be a great workout. I'm down 5 pounds since Monday and moved in a notch on the weight belt. Here's my diet from yesterday:
whey shake with milk,blueberries, flax and oatmeal
Kiwi
Grapefruit
cocoalmonds
raisins
white chili,lots of chicken and beans
pizza(homemade)just one slice though
Romain Salad
carrots
one small bread stick
plain yogurt
peanuts
lots of water
Hack squats
pull-ups
chair dips
stiff-legged dead lifts
military press
dumbbell snatch
push-ups
single arm rows
Superset each exercise with another, 20-30 seconds rest between sets, three sets of each, last set for a personal record. I think this may be the first week we have had 100% attendance for the full week. We also went harder than we ever have before and no one was complaining. I'm sure everyone will feel it by tomorrow. Congratulations!
My Fat loss report:
I was down to 149.0 lbs last night, so another big jump. I was afraid my strength was going down as well, but in this mornings workout I broke records in all my lifts except incline press. I almost quit after the first set of presses I was so disappointed. Fortunately I pressed on and found all my other lifts in great shape. I almost told myself I must be getting weaker from the diet and I shouldn't try to lift hard. Wrong! Turned out to be a great workout. I'm down 5 pounds since Monday and moved in a notch on the weight belt. Here's my diet from yesterday:
whey shake with milk,blueberries, flax and oatmeal
Kiwi
Grapefruit
cocoalmonds
raisins
white chili,lots of chicken and beans
pizza(homemade)just one slice though
Romain Salad
carrots
one small bread stick
plain yogurt
peanuts
lots of water
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Thurs. Feb 4
Core-Intervals
We did a core circuit similar to Tuesdays, followed by 30 sec bouts of high knee running, mountain climbers, burpees, jumping jacks, speed squats and more running.
My diet experiment continues:
I didn't lose any weight yesterday, still at about 151.6, I did eat a very late meal of salad, carrots and oranges. I didn't get any vegetables in during the day so I did it all in one meal. That was my 5th meal, about 9:00PM. I did wake up very hungry around midnight and really didn't sleep too great after that. I don't know if it was the hunger or Tommy who kept crying that kept me awake. I think the large salad and lots of water late kept my weight up. I have found that the smaller meals more often have definitly curbed my hunger, my energy seems very consistant throughout the day as well. I don't have that after dinner crash anymore. After only three days I am feeling quite thinner, I know because it's easier to tighten my weight belt to the same hole as before. I can see a visable difference in the mirror allready. Very exciting!
We did a core circuit similar to Tuesdays, followed by 30 sec bouts of high knee running, mountain climbers, burpees, jumping jacks, speed squats and more running.
My diet experiment continues:
I didn't lose any weight yesterday, still at about 151.6, I did eat a very late meal of salad, carrots and oranges. I didn't get any vegetables in during the day so I did it all in one meal. That was my 5th meal, about 9:00PM. I did wake up very hungry around midnight and really didn't sleep too great after that. I don't know if it was the hunger or Tommy who kept crying that kept me awake. I think the large salad and lots of water late kept my weight up. I have found that the smaller meals more often have definitly curbed my hunger, my energy seems very consistant throughout the day as well. I don't have that after dinner crash anymore. After only three days I am feeling quite thinner, I know because it's easier to tighten my weight belt to the same hole as before. I can see a visable difference in the mirror allready. Very exciting!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Groundhog Day
Core-cardio
Warm-up playing stretch-the-band if you can.
Turkish get-ups(10lb dumbbell)
dumbbell swings(single arm and double arm
Crunches with dumbbell orerhead
supermans
v-sit
Climbing legs
bird-dog
Hill Sprints(x5
Progress report:
I lost 2 lbs yesterday, down to 152.4
I wasn't never really hungry, and I was never really full either.
The weight loss was due to glycogen levels in my liver and muscle decreasing as my carbs were much lower than the previous few days. Glycogen acts like a sponge for water so as the levels fall the water comes out, I was going all day long, clear as water. That should level out today and my weight-loss will taper off.
My energy level was great. Each meal was around 400 calories, I ended up at around 2100 for the day.
Warm-up playing stretch-the-band if you can.
Turkish get-ups(10lb dumbbell)
dumbbell swings(single arm and double arm
Crunches with dumbbell orerhead
supermans
v-sit
Climbing legs
bird-dog
Hill Sprints(x5
Progress report:
I lost 2 lbs yesterday, down to 152.4
I wasn't never really hungry, and I was never really full either.
The weight loss was due to glycogen levels in my liver and muscle decreasing as my carbs were much lower than the previous few days. Glycogen acts like a sponge for water so as the levels fall the water comes out, I was going all day long, clear as water. That should level out today and my weight-loss will taper off.
My energy level was great. Each meal was around 400 calories, I ended up at around 2100 for the day.
Moday Feb. 1st
Full body strength training circuit.
Hack Squats
Pushups
Glute-ham raises
Single-arm snatch
Military press
pull-ups
Dips
1 arm dumbbell row
2 sets of each exercise, 60 sec rest, reps to failure or 1 minute.
I'm doing a strict diet for one week staring today to see what happens, for research. I weighed in at 154.6, 31.5 inch waist.
Diet consists of 5 meals a day, every three hours, carbs, protein, fats, in every meal.
Single ingredient foods, no processed foods, fruits in the morning and lots of vegetables in the evening.
Lots of water.
I'm lifting heavy weights(3-5 reps) three times a week full-body workouts(45 min), plus 5 days of bootcamp, but I don't work real hard during these.
I will post my Diet here for all to critique.
Monday
Whey, milk, flax, spinach, mixed berry shake
Homeade, wholewheat noodle lasagna
walnuts
raisins
kiwi
yogurt
baked potato
shredded pork
spinach
Hack Squats
Pushups
Glute-ham raises
Single-arm snatch
Military press
pull-ups
Dips
1 arm dumbbell row
2 sets of each exercise, 60 sec rest, reps to failure or 1 minute.
I'm doing a strict diet for one week staring today to see what happens, for research. I weighed in at 154.6, 31.5 inch waist.
Diet consists of 5 meals a day, every three hours, carbs, protein, fats, in every meal.
Single ingredient foods, no processed foods, fruits in the morning and lots of vegetables in the evening.
Lots of water.
I'm lifting heavy weights(3-5 reps) three times a week full-body workouts(45 min), plus 5 days of bootcamp, but I don't work real hard during these.
I will post my Diet here for all to critique.
Monday
Whey, milk, flax, spinach, mixed berry shake
Homeade, wholewheat noodle lasagna
walnuts
raisins
kiwi
yogurt
baked potato
shredded pork
spinach
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