The Pros and Cons of Low Carb Dieting

Well, here we go again. A few years ago all we heard about was how "evil" carbs are. One bite of bread or pasta and you'd turn into the human equivalent of a beached whale. Now over the last couple of months I'm starting to see all sorts of articles being written about how bad low carb diets are! Will this ever stop!

I've learned a few things in my time as a trainer. One of those things is that there is no such thing as an "evil" food you can never ever eat. Except for olives. They are evil.

Olives: The only truly evil food

Today, I'd like to give you some observations I've made concerning low-carbohydrate diets. I've been on low-carb diets and I've had clients on them as well. Suffice to say that I don't think they are the greatest thing ever or the worst thing ever. There are some aspects to them that are very effective, both for fat loss and long-term health. There are other aspects to them that aren't so great. I believe the answer is really somewhere in the middle. 

First let's do our best to define what a low-carb diet is and what it's supposed to accomplish. There are, of course, different versions but the common thread running through all of them is that your diet focuses on lean proteins and healthy fats with carbohydrates placing a very distant third. The recommendations of how many carbs you can have each day vary with the specific diet you are on, but I've seen as little as 10-25 grams or as much as 75-100. Now, to me 100g for most people is kind of the low-end of a medium carb approach (there are, of course, other factors to consider). The average low-carb diet is probably about 50g, and this would certainly qualify as low-carb in my book. To give you an idea of what 50g breaks down to, it's about a slice and half of bread. Not all that much.

What it's supposed to accomplish is fat loss. The idea is that by not eating any carbohydrates (which is the primary thing our body uses for energy) the body is forced to use our fat stores. This results in fat loss.

OK. Now let's talk about the pros and cons. We'll start with the positives.

The Pros

1. It works. There are a few different reasons why, but the bottom line is that these diets work. It's not uncommon for people to experience a weight loss of 5-10 pounds or sometimes even more over the first week or two. Now that kind of extreme weight loss at the beginning is commonly caused by the depletion of water and glycogen stores (carb intake causes more water retention and glycogen is what carbs break down into for the body to store and use as energy) and not fat loss. After the first week or two much of your glycogen stores are depleted. At that point a weekly weight loss of 1-2 pounds can be common. 

2. It teaches people what they can do without. The most common thing I hear after people go on these diets is that they realize they don't really need to eat all the carbs they thought they did. It takes a small adjustment period (usually a week or two) but they soon realize they can survive, and often feel better, without much bread or pasta.

3. It teaches people what is important in their diet. Any diet, be it high, medium or low carb should focus on lean protein as it's most important component. All too often, foods such as bread or pasta comprise the vast majority of people's calorie intake. I've seen low-carb diets completely change people's expectations about what their diet can and should be and that can make a huge difference.

4. It can force you to eat more whole foods. If you're doing the low-carb thing right, then your diet will consist mainly of lean protein, healthy fats and vegetables. What's the common theme here? Unprocessed, healthy food. It's never a bad idea to base your nutrition around that.

5. It's simple. You know the old saying: KISS. That stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. You can't get much simpler than lean protein and veggies cooked in olive oil with a few nuts thrown in. It's real easy to know what you should eat on a low-carb diet.

6. It's gluten free!! OK. This is kind of a joke but it's also true. "Gluten-Free" is one  diet trends that I'm sure we've all heard of. Here's the thing, though: Gluten is mainly found in foods you shouldn't be eating very much in the first place!! Chicken? Gluten free. Apples? Gluten free. Nuts? Gluten free. Broccoli? Gluten free. Cake, cookies and pasta? Full of gluten! Stop going out of your way to eat the same garbage you always eat, except without gluten, and you'll find some pretty nice success pretty quickly. Gluten free cinnamon buns? STOP IT!!!! OK. Rant over.

The Cons

1. There is a shelf life. As I mentioned in the first section, these diets do work, but they don't work forever. In my experience they're effective for somewhere between 3-6 months for most people. The higher your body-fat percentage the longer they usually work, but this isn't always the case. You should extend this shelf life a little by using regular "re-feed meals" (also known as cheat meals). How you'll incorporate them is pretty individual but it is a very important aspect to going low-carb and getting the most out of it.

2. Your energy levels and gym performance might suffer. The more carbs you usually eat heading in to a low-carb diet the worse you'll usually feel when you start one. People can feel tired and a little foggy. Headaches aren't uncommon. Your general mood can be pretty bad. The good news here is that this will usually pass in about a week or so and after that you'll pretty much feel back to normal. The problem is that many people don't make it through that first week or so. Also, if you're used to really training hard you might find that your gym performance is just not up to snuff for a while, so you have to be ready for that. This is not a performance oriented diet.

3. You still have to practice portion control. For the most part it's hard to overeat lean protein. It's pretty filling and very nutrient dense.  The problem can occur with the fats, though. It can be pretty easy to overeat certain otherwise healthy fats like nuts or olive oil. The calories still count!

4. You have to have an exit plan. After working like crazy for months it can be pretty frustrating to come off the diet in what feels like a sensible fashion, only to put 5-6 pounds back on in a week or two. The thing to remember here is, just like when you dropped all that weight very quickly at the beginning of the diet, the weight gain is going to be primarily water and glycogen stores. It will settle down soon but you do have to bring the carbs back in a gradual and strategic fashion.

5. It can mess with your mind. While I mentioned before that going low-carb can bring into focus how your nutrition should usually be structured, it can also cause a fear of certain foods that is unnecessary and sometimes flat-out wrong. If you think eating fruit will make you fat, then perhaps this one is for you. Also, if you think you can never ever have ice cream again it's for you, too. 

6. There are other ways. So many times when I've talked to people about their nutrition they tell me, without any sort of prompting, that they either know they have to give up bread entirely or that they can't give up bread at all. Imagine their surprise when I tell them that I've clients (and myself) lose weight eating pizza and ice cream every week. The key is that it's part of an overall plan. You can lose weight going high-carb, medium carb or low carb. The questions, as always, is what is best for you.

I hope that this gives you a good idea of both the benefits and drawbacks to low-carb diets. They undoubtedly work, but as I mentioned they're far from the only thing that does. 

If you need any help putting the right diet for you or if you have any comments about low-carb diets in general, please drop me a line and let me know. 

Oh by the way, I tried like heck to think of a way to reference Roger Waters' fantastic "The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking" in this article but I just couldn't do it. If you want to hear some of Eric Clapton's best post-Cream guitar work, I highly suggest you pick it up.

Have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach, FMS

2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley

510-754-7113

MitchRFitness@gmail.com

MitchRFitness.com

I Help People Discover Their Strength!

8 Reasons You Aren't Getting Results

There are many reasons people get lackluster results in the gym. The nice thing is many of these things can be fixed with just a little thought. Today I just want to go over a few things I’ve seen that gets in people’s way.

1. You’re not really working all that hard.  Let me ask a simple question: Do you think properly adding more weight to what you’re lifting is a punishment or a reward? If you even have to think about your answer I’ll bet you’re not working as hard as you can or think you are.  Sure, there are ways to measure progress other than just lifting heavier but if your mindset is such that you think lifting heavy is a punishment, let me be clear about this:

IT IS A PRIVILEGE!

If you’re religious then you should thank whomever you pray to EVERY SINGLE DAY that you can do this. You’d better appreciate what you’ve been given or it WILL be taken away from you. In any case, don’t talk to me about results if you don’t push yourself. Sorry.

2. You’re not following the program. If someone gives you directions to get to the airport and you ignore them, what are the odds of you getting to the airport? Not good. By the same token, if you have a program but aren’t following it what are the odds of you getting the results you want? They’re about the same as you getting to the airport. It’s worse yet if you don’t even follow a program. That’s like trying to get to the airport with a blindfold on!

3. You don’t know your goals. This is a big reason many people don’t have a program. It’s hard to write a program if you don’t know what you want to get out of one. That’s like asking for directions but not knowing where you even want to go.

4. You haven’t really connected with your goals. I know you want to (insert goal here) but do you know why? No one wants to lose 10 pounds just for the heck of it. What will it do for you? Will it make you healthier? Look better? Improve your athletic performance? Why is it important to you? Figure that out and you’ll have a much better chance at hitting your goal, whatever it is.

5. You are not being honest with yourself. I’d like to win the Masters Golf Tournament.  That would be pretty awesome, right? Imagine me up there getting that green jacket. What did you say? I’d have to work on my golf game hours and hours each day for years on end? Well, maybe I don’t want to win the Masters after all.

Know what you’re willing to do and what you are NOT willing to do. If you aren’t willing to change how you eat then it’s really not a goal of yours to lose weight. If you’re not willing to lift heavy weights then it’s not really a goal of yours to get stronger. By the way, these aren’t necessarily bad things. Your goals are YOUR GOALS. Not anyone else’s. Just be honest with yourself about what they really are. That way you won’t be beating yourself up for years because you haven’t dropped that 10 pounds you don’t really care that much about dropping anyway!

6. You haven’t changed your diet. I’ll put this simply:

If you don’t change your diet you won’t lose weight.

That’s it. No ifs, ands or buts.

If you don’t change your diet you won’t lose weight.

7. You compare yourself to others. Remember a few years ago when they released Michael Phelps’ training diet? It was something like 10,000-12,000 calories per day and had all sorts of stuff on it that you wouldn’t expect to see on a top athlete's diet. Stuff like pancakes and pizza. Well, let’s boil this down. How many competitive swimmers have there been in the world? Let’s figure on the low end. Something like 10,000,000? Well, Michael Phelps is the best one ever. The best out of more than 10 million. He’s a genetic freak. Do you really think that what he eats and how he trains can really apply to us mortals? Let me help you out. It can’t.

The same goes when you see someone else at the gym. You can certainly look at them as inspiration but you probably don’t know what it took for them to look or perform that way. They may have been doing this since they were 5 and you may have started two weeks ago.

Do your best. Celebrate your gains. Look to others for inspiration but know that they may have been on a very different path to get what they are. Don’t compare your start to someone else’s middle. (I'm not sure who said that.)

8. You let things get in your way. If you want results it's not going to be easy. That's what makes it special. Too often I see people let things derail them. They might sprain an ankle, for example, so they take two weeks off from training. Well, we can still work your core, back, chest, arms, other leg, glutes, hamstrings and cardiovascular system can't we? And while you "rest" that ankle what happens to the rest of you? Also, if you think you'll wait until that ankle is 100% before you exercise again you're going to be waiting a very long time. It won't get back to 100% without some sort of stimulus. I hear all the time from people who've gotten hurt or sick or busy or something else entirely, and then spent the next several years waiting. What happens then? 

Honestly take a look and see if some of what I wrote applies to you. Many times we just need to remove a small roadblock to get us exactly where we want to go.  If you need help removing any roadblocks that may be getting in your way, don't hesitate to let me know.

Have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach, FMS

2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley

510-754-7113

MitchRFitness@gmail.com

MitchRFitness.com

I Help People Discover Their Strength!

Exercise Doesn't Work

Exercise doesn’t work. That’s right. I said it. Exercise doesn’t work. You’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait. What’s he saying? Isn’t he a personal trainer who can’t stop talking about strength training and how good it is for you and blah blah blah blah?” Well, yes I am but that doesn’t change the fact that exercise doesn’t work.

Well, maybe I should clarify what I’m trying to say just a little bit. Let me paint a picture: Someone wants to lose weight so they start to exercise. The scale doesn’t move. They exercise harder. It doesn’t move. The cycle continues and they exercise harder and even add a day, but the scale doesn’t move. What’s going on here?

It’s simple. Diet. I’m going to put this as simply as I can.

IF YOU DO NOT CHANGE YOUR DIET YOU WILL NOT LOSE WEIGHT.

I don’t care if you exercise like a house on fire, if you don’t change your diet you will not lose weight. There are a few different reasons for this so let’s go over some of them real quick.

1. You don’t burn all that many calories when you exercise. This is the truth. You know when you hear about people talk about burning 1000 calories during their cardio sessions? That’s not real.

2. When you exercise hard it makes you hungry. What do you do when you’re hungry? Eat! If you haven’t consciously addressed your diet you most likely eat somewhere around the calories you just burnt off, plus a few for good measure.

3. The body is nothing if not smart. It doesn’t want to change and will do lots of sneaky things to stay right where it is no matter how hard you want to change it. Along with making you hungrier it’ll also do things like subconsciously reduce your activity level so that your calorie expenditure matches your intake. Tricky!

OK. So if exercise doesn’t work and your body is working against any attempt to lose weight why even try? Well, don’t give up yet. You can do it but you have to be smart about it. Here are a few things to get you on the right path.

1. Log your food. I know that this scares people and I know it can be a bit of a pain, but how do you know what to change if you don’t know what you’re doing? Oh, by the way if you need to lose weight and you’re not logging your food you DO NOT know what you’re eating even if you think you are. Let me role-play for a second as someone who wants to lose weight after I ask them what they usually eat.

“Well, I usually eat pretty well. I have some oatmeal in the morning or sometimes a yogurt. Sometimes if I’m in a hurry I’ll have some fruit. For lunch I’ll have a sandwich, but sometimes I’ll go out to eat with the people from my office. For dinner it’s usually some meat and vegetables. Oh, sometimes at night I’ll have some snacks. Maybe some ice cream but not too often. Maybe two or three time a week. Oh, we also have a snack jar at work and sometimes I’ll grab a handful of M&Ms. Not all that often, though. On the weekends we’ll go out to eat, too.”

Based on what they’ve told me they could be eating anywhere from 1100 calories a day to 3000 and I haven’t even asked them how much water they drink. In other words they don’t know what they’re eating and if they don’t know how could they possibly know what to change? It’s like asking directions to the mall. The directions are going to be completely different if you’re starting in San Francisco as opposed to Dublin.

Study after study has shown that people who want to lose weight usually underestimate the calories they're taking in. Accurately log your food and you won't be just another statistic.

2. Be consistent. The more consistent you are with your diet the easier it will be to know what adjustments to make. Have a couple of proteins that you stick with, a couple of carbs, a couple of fats, etc. It might sound boring but you can mix and match plenty and with a little creativity with your veggies and spices you can do quite well. If you want all the variety and freedom you can have with your diet, that’s fine, just be happy with your weight right where it is.

3. Learn to be a little hungry. If you want to lose weight then at some point you’re going to have to get used to feeling a little hungry. Now, I’m talking a little hungry. I’m not talking about getting to the point where you’re feeling dizzy or you can’t function or concentrate.

Most of the time what we feel as physical hunger is most likely habit or emotional hunger. People eat for all sorts of reasons. Depression, boredom, habit. Sometimes we eat just because it’s there. When you get used to that slightly hungry feeling you’ll be able to tell the difference.

4. Understand that this may be a long-term thing. Depending on how much weight you want to lose, this may take a while. A good average is between 1-2 pounds a week. You might lose a little more at first but 1-2 pounds a week is what we’re shooting for in the long term. I know it doesn’t sound sexy but if you do some math you’ll realize that can be about 15 pounds in two months. If that doesn't sound that great then tel me how much you've lost in the last two months doing it your way.

Besides, if you think you want more than this, then I’m here to tell you that you probably don’t. Remember what I said about the body never wanting to change? Well, if you lose too much at once the body is going to do everything it can to snap back. If you lose a little at a time, the body isn’t going to mind as much and it’s less likely to fight against you so hard.

By that same token you can’t do this forever, so taking a little break after 4-5 months if you have a lot of weight to lose can be a good thing in the long run.

OK. Let’s get back to what I said at the very beginning. Exercise doesn’t work. Obviously, I just wanted to get your attention a little and make a point but I’m not kidding that your diet is really the most important aspect of weight loss. Having said that, in reality exercise is a very important aspect of weight loss for many reasons. Let me run through a few of them quickly.

1. It tells your body to hold on to the muscle it already has.

2. It boosts your metabolism.

3. It sets you up to be able to maintain your weight loss.

4. It helps you mentally focus on what you need to do.

5. It feels good.

6. It helps elevate your mood.

I’ve written many times about the benefits of exercise but I really want you to understand how important your diet is as well.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments and have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach, FMS

2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley

510-754-7113

MitchRFitness@gmail.com

MitchRFitness.com

I Help People Discover Their Strength!

What Is Strength?

Hello, everyone! A while ago I wrote a pretty long treatise on my entire training philosophy. You can read it here if you like: http://mitchrothbardtfitness.com/Philosophy/

In a nutshell the main point I tried to get across was that I feel that many, if not most, people are working on the wrong things when it comes to their fitness, specifically too much cardio and flexibility, and not enough mobility and strength. I don’t want to go into all the reasons why right here (you can read the original article for that) but I made the statement that whatever your goals are (and yes that absolutely includes losing weight) if getting stronger is not part of your program you will most likely fail in the long run.

I don’t think that’s an exaggeration at all and I have lots of clients and many years of experience that have informed that opinion. What I want to talk about today is why I think it’s so important.

1. Mental strength. Many times I see people that have, quite honestly, have had a history of failure when it comes to their goals. Many have tried to lose weight for years with little or no success. Many have started and stopped exercising countless times with nothing to show for the effort. When this happens there is certainly a toll that is taken on the body but it’s nothing like the toll that is taken on the mind.

They feel they can’t do it. Exercise doesn’t work. Diet doesn’t work. They’ve failed and they walk around with that failure all day, every day. I won’t go into the legitimate reasons why they might have failed (thanks Planet Fitness) but they see others getting results and that leads them to feel that it’s not within their power to get the results they want.

When you see someone who is coming from that type of background and watch as they start doing things they never thought they could do, you see a change occur. I can’t tell you how many times a client has seen the word “Squat” on their workout sheet and told me, “I can’t do that.” I just tell them, “Sure you can,” and show them how to do the version they can do. You see, over time a squat to a high box becomes a squat to a lower box and that becomes a squat without a box, etc. What happened there? They got stronger and they realized they can now easily do something they thought they could NEVER do. Now what happens? As this realization hits their mind they start thinking that, “ Maybe I CAN do this”. Let me tell you this. Once the mind starts believing that you can do something, the world opens. You’ve gotten stronger.

I had a client doing deadlifts one day. When she first started a few months prior she was doing a 15 lb. kettlebell. Over time she started doing heavier and heavier weights and soon graduated to the 45 lb. bar. The weight continued to get heavier and one day after her last set she asked me how much was on the bar. (She never wanted to know before her set.) When I told her it was 100 lbs. she nearly cried in shock. She came to me because she wanted to lose some weight and feel better. If I told her that within a few months she’d be lifting 100 pounds or more on a regular basis she would never have believed she could. Is there a price you can put on this?

2. Physical strength. Quite simply, do you want to be able to function in life? Do you want to be able to carry the clothesbasket up the stairs? Do you want to be able to play with your grandkids? I don’t care if you can touch your toes easily, that won’t help you carry the groceries in from the car.

You might respond by saying that strength won’t help you if you’re a runner. Well, you’re wrong about that. When your foot hits the ground you produce force, which allows you to push off and stride forward. What happens when you get stronger? You produce more force, which allows you to cover more distance and RUN FASTER!

What else happens? The stronger you are the more resistant you are to injury and if you know runners like I do, that is a huge issue.

3. Improved movement. Life is really all about movement and strength can help you move better. How many times do you hear about someone who puts out their back picking up a pencil? Well, it wasn’t that pencil that threw their back out. It was a lot of bad movement that put constant strain on the back and the pencil was just the last straw, so to speak.

What proper strength training does is take a basic movement pattern and load it. Let’s take the example of picking a bag of groceries up from the floor. This movement pattern is known as a hip dominant pattern. This means that the hips and the muscles surrounding them drive the movement. Well to put it nicely, many people have pretty poor hip movement. What that means is that each time they pick something up they are putting unnecessary strain on certain muscles. Their back in this case. What we do is teach someone the most basic hip dominant movement. Once they can perform this movement well we make it a little harder, whether by changing the exercise or by adding weight to the movement. The reasons for this are many, but in this case it teaches someone to perform the movement well in adverse circumstances, which will translate to that person performing the movement extremely well in everyday circumstances. Guess what that means when it comes to picking up that pencil or your grandson: No injury!

4. Improved conditioning. I’m going to be as plain about this as I can be.

If you do a working set of squats during your workout (by a working set, I mean one that’s not a warm-up) and you’re not breathing heavily afterwards YOU ARE NOT WORKING VERY HARD.  I don’t mean to burst your bubble but that’s the truth. Strength training with intensity is in many ways the best conditioning you can do.

People ask me about cardio all the time. What I like to tell them is that just because you’re not walking on a treadmill doesn’t mean you’re not exercising your heart! Obviously that’s important. The heart is the second most important muscle in the body! (After a set of HUUUUUUGE biceps). As I said before, if you’re lifting weights and not breathing heavy in the slightest after each set, YOU ARE NOT WORKING VERY HARD! In other words, strength training done correctly is ABSOLUTELY exercising your heart. As a bonus you also get stronger, move better and get more confidence from it as well. You can’t say that about 30 minutes on the treadmill.

5. Better appearance.  OK. I can talk all I want about better function and strength, etc. but in the end the thing that most of us want from exercise is to look better. Well, strength can help with that, too. As we build strength, what else do we build? Muscle. Did you know that muscle weighs more than fat? What does that mean? Well, it means that if you gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 5 pounds of fat, you will get smaller and leaner and look better!

Also, since muscle is more metabolically active your metabolism will go up making it easier and easier for you to continue to lose fat if you choose to do so. Again, all the cardio classes in the world will not help you do this.

What about the thing many women are concerned with: getting too big. Well, the primary hormone that aids in muscle growth is testosterone and women have, on average, less than 10% of the testosterone that men have so in reality it’s just not all that feasible that you are going to get too big.  If you feel that you are, I’d say that the vast majority of the time it’s your diet that is going to be the culprit here, NOT the strength training.

So let’s see. Strength training will improve your mental strength, your physical strength, your movement, your conditioning and your appearance.  That’s a pretty convincing argument to me. I’ve said this before, but my clients that have embraced this philosophy have ALWAYS gotten better results than those that haven’t. It’s that simple.

Let me know what you think and have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach, FMS

2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley

510-754-7113

MitchRFitness@gmail.com

MitchRFitness.com

I Help People Discover Their Strength!