I had to get back-up because I'm scared that some of you actually believe I'm wrong about skipping breakfast being a great way to lose fat.

DONT LET SCIENCE GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR BELIEFS.

Quote :

" Breakfast I apologize in advance to readers who were expecting a third group of food items that I think should be ditched from your diet. This is in part tongue-in-cheek. There is nothing inherently bad about breakfast. Nor is there anything inherently good about it either. But for me, skipping breakfast was the single greatest diet fix I ever made and the one that allowed me to really take it to the next level in terms of lowering my body fat. There’s a lesson in here, so keep reading even if you don’t think you can live without breakfast. I was never a breakfast person in the sense that I wasn’t hungry in the morning and preferred to eat later in the day and evening. Yet I forced myself to eat breakfast on every diet attempt I made until a few years ago. I believed breakfast was absolutely crucial for a few different reasons. First, sleeping supposedly leaves your muscles without a steady supply of amino acids for several hours, making breakfast crucial to keep your muscles from falling off. Second, my poor fragile metabolism apparently couldn’t handle a few hours without food before completely shutting down. And third, breakfast-eaters were on average healthier and weighed less than breakfast-skippers so there had to be something good about it, right? One day I looked into all of this—the actual studies that is, and not what I had learned through fitness magazines and supplement ads. Guess what? All of those claims about the healthiness of breakfast, muscle catabolism and metabolic rate were wrong. I’ve written a lot about this topic on my blog, but let me provide the main points. Your metabolism doesn’t scavenge amino acids from your muscles after an overnight fast. Fatty acid metabolism is highly up-regulated, but muscle catabolism doesn’t occur in short-term fasting for up to 24 hours. If you’re still paranoid about this (I am), make sure to eat some slowly absorbed protein before bed, such as cottage cheese, egg white protein or meat with veggies (the extra fiber will slow absorption as meat is generally considered a “fast” protein). Another thing to keep in mind is the very slow absorption rate of whole food proteins. We’re talking a few grams per hour, which means that a mixed meal with 40-50 grams of protein will maintain a steady level of amino acids in your bloodstream well through the night and into the next day. The belief that a few hours without food will cause muscle catabolism is absurd. Metabolic rate does not slow down during short-term fasting. It actually increases slightly. That’s probably the complete opposite from what you’ve heard, but this is an undisputed fact. It takes more than three days without food before metabolic rate is negatively affected via down-regulation of thyroid activity. That skipping breakfast or missing a meal affects metabolic rate, a myth still propagated in the fitness and health community, is ludicrous. What about those studies showing breakfast is healthy and people that eat breakfast weigh less than breakfast-skippers? Those are all correlational studies. Skipping breakfast is connected to a certain dysregulated eating behavior that predisposes people to weigh more. The Average Joe or Jane breakfast-skipper is the personality type to grab a donut on the way to work, eat junk food for lunch and finish the day off with a big dinner and snack in front of the TV. Those studies have no relevance to the conscious dieter that skips breakfast as a fat loss strategy. Summary Chew your calories. Generally speaking, the more chewing resistance a food provides, the slower the digestion will be and the longer and faster you’ll stay satisfied and full. Don’t half-ass your calories with calorie-dense snacks and shakes. Another factor to consider with snacks and shakes is the appetite stimulating effect they have on some people. A new study shows that, if the choice stands between three big meals and six small meals, three meals come out on top with regards to appetite control. Three meals is also a meal frequency that I have favored for years. Invest some time in your meals and eat less frequently. Ditch the snacks and shakes in between meals. Don’t let dogma or false beliefs dictate your meal frequency. Choose a meal frequency completely based on personal preferences. That was the lesson I wanted to teach through with my tale of skipping breakfast. If you never were a breakfast-eater like me, skip breakfast and eat later in the day. You can have lunch, dinner and an evening meal. Or whatever other eating pattern that lets you adhere the best to your diet."

3/13/2012 8:26:54 PM

Quote :

"Quit trying to talk down to people that know more than you about the topic at hand."

Alright guy, don't ever assume.

I am paid and expected to maintain an advanced level of physical fitness for my profession.

From you, in this thread, such gems as:

Do calf raises to jump higher
Running is bad for you
I give nutrition advise [but drink 3 cases of beer a week]

So tell you what, you just ignore me, and I and others will do the same for you in this thread.

3/13/2012 8:28:33 PM

OH LOOK AT THAT - no actual studies cited.


I totally believe you now.

3/13/2012 8:28:36 PM

3 meals better than 6 for appetite control - http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/three-meals-superior-for-appetite.html

Fasting myths http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html


Look there are studies all over the place telling you that I'm right. I haven't bookmarked every article I've ever read unfortunately, but if you know anything about fat loss you'd already know that fasting is a VERY effective way to lose fat and that eating frequently is detrimental to fat loss.


^^ I manage to still look pretty good despite the 3 cases of beer. Most people who drink like that don't weigh 175 I can assure you. And calf raises do help you increase your vertical, are you mental? That wasn't the first exercise i mentioned or anything. And I didn't say running is bad for you (although it certainly is arguable that the negatives outweigh the positives), I said it is ineffective and very inefficient for fat loss after the first five pounds. That's not even debateable, my statement was correct.

[Edited on March 13, 2012 at 8:34 PM. Reason : a]



[Edited on March 13, 2012 at 8:42 PM. Reason : a]

3/13/2012 8:32:53 PM

y'all niggas gettin' trolled

3/13/2012 8:41:14 PM

Good job djeternal on your weight loss/work outs so far! I bet that keeps you motivated for more.

3/13/2012 8:59:27 PM

I eat breakfast and run everyday

3/13/2012 9:00:34 PM

^ are you getting prepped for Saturday morning?

3/13/2012 9:05:24 PM

I think there was some debate on adding bacon to your breakfast a couple of pages ago...

Anyways, For breakfast I usually have 2 soft boiled eggs and 2 pieces of toast instead of adding bacon though I added chicken sausage, 1 link (pretty big links lol) this might be a good alternative for those who don't want/like bacon but want to add in protein and fat (the good kind)

3/13/2012 9:18:03 PM

soft boiled? is it still gooey inside?

3/13/2012 9:21:25 PM

haha yeah, it's how I grew upthe gooey bit goes on the toast Some mornings I do hard boiled and no toast

3/13/2012 9:23:02 PM

Meal timing and frequency are secondary to calorie balance and activity level.

Eat less, move more, and get stronger.

Then worry about whatever timing and frequency you can be compliant with to maintain the calorie deficit long enough to lose enough weight.

3/13/2012 9:23:30 PM

Yes!!! I love the goo too.

3/13/2012 9:26:38 PM

Yes but eating less frequently and narrowing your feeding window is a great way to reduce your caloric intake and appetite.

When you eat small, frequent meals you are always hungry all day. By fasting you eliminate the hunger in the first half of the day and by eating full meals instead of snacks you get better satiety.

Also this is too important to overlook. Fat burning is much more efficient while fasting.

Quote :

" After you eat, insulin and fatty acids are elevated. You are in the fed state and there's zero fat burning going on. Your body is relying completely on glucose oxidation during the hours following the meal. One way of measuring this is via the respiratory quotient (RQ). An RQ of 1.0 denotes pure carbohydrate metabolism ("storage mode"), while 0.7 denotes pure fat metabolism. To put this into perspective, consider that RQ is 0.95-1.0 for about 1.5-2 hours after a meal, 0.82-0.85 after overnight fasting and 0.72-0.8 after 16 hours of fasting. As the hours go by and the nutrients from the meal are done being absorbed, RQ drops in conjunction with insulin. There's a shift towards fat burning and mobilization of stored fat. This process is mediated by insulin and blood-borne fatty acids; when levels drop, an energy deficit is "sensed" and catecholamines (adrenaline and nordrenaline) increase. "

3/13/2012 9:29:04 PM

To lighten the mood:





^I'm a big fan of intermittent fasting. I used it last year to drop 25lbs in 10weeks.

I am starting my cut on Sunday. Probably shoot for 20lbs over 10weeks. Then maintain that until fall.

[Edited on March 13, 2012 at 9:37 PM. Reason : ;]

3/13/2012 9:34:41 PM

lol Alan Thicke!

3/13/2012 9:37:23 PM

Quote :

"I think there was some debate on adding bacon to your breakfast a couple of pages ago... Anyways, For breakfast I usually have 2 soft boiled eggs and 2 pieces of toast instead of adding bacon though I added chicken sausage, 1 link (pretty big links lol) this might be a good alternative for those who don't want/like bacon but want to add in protein and fat (the good kind)"

Yum chicken sausage and bacon. Unfortunately I can't have either

And lol at the video. Thanks for that Matt.

3/13/2012 9:55:50 PM

Anyone in here have hypothyroidIsm? What symptoms made you get it checked? How easy is treatment and has it had a major impact?

3/13/2012 10:12:15 PM

skip breakfast to lose weight lol

3/13/2012 10:12:33 PM

^ yes, intermittent fasting is one of the absolute best methods to lose fat.

Don't be dense.


Did you not see a few posts above where a guy lost 25 lbs in 10 weeks?

3/13/2012 10:20:45 PM

i mean i haven't eaten more than 1-2 breakfasts a week for the last 10 years and it in no way had any correlation to my weight

3/13/2012 10:30:32 PM

Sounds very scientific

3/14/2012 12:19:04 AM

a long weekend in vegas and a week off from any activity seemed to fuck my strength. however, 125lbs for 6 on standing ohp yesterday.... att: 135lb press..... soon.


[Edited on March 14, 2012 at 8:15 AM. Reason : e]

3/14/2012 8:01:45 AM

Don't know if this has been posted. Probably pretty common knowledge in here. Good summary though.

https://www.sott.net/articles/show/242516-World-Renown-Heart-Surgeon-Speaks-Out-On-What-Really-Causes-Heart-Disease

3/14/2012 11:02:52 AM

good read.

3/14/2012 11:06:53 AM

And it's so hard because I love my carbs. Pastas, breads, etc.

3/14/2012 11:08:20 AM

Wow good article. So skipping breakfast is a good way to prevent heart disease too, interesting.

Although I'm sure some of the posters here won't believe the doctor either

3/14/2012 11:35:15 AM

^you are a moron. get out of here with your trolling.

3/14/2012 11:40:33 AM

I mean I think everyone has always known simple carbs and processed foods are hard on your body. There's no argument there. The interesting point of this article is how we've screwed ourselves by limiting fat over the last few decades and it hasn't worked. People are still getting fatter.

Good science Friday piece on it as well:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/17/147047545/should-sugar-be-regulated-like-alcohol

Basically asking the question should sugar be regulated like tobacco or alcohol. It's hard though as it's such a large exported good and it's so heavily subsidized.

3/14/2012 11:41:57 AM

MORE GOVERNMENT REGULATION! JUST WHAT WE NEED!

3/14/2012 11:53:51 AM

Well actually maybe less. Stop subsidizing it so much and it won't be so damn cheap and less people will consume so much of it.

3/14/2012 11:55:08 AM

face.

as someone who's tried to argue for IF or leangains before, my final conclusion was to just say fuck it and not worry about what people say.

read the research yourself, and make your own conclusions. people can be wrong if they want to be.

there are forums dedicated to LG/IF. not here, but elsewhere.

i love LG and IF. i just have the eating discipline of a 300lb 4 year old.

3/14/2012 11:57:30 AM

I have no sense of moderation. I like to switch between beast mode eating and not eating at all.

Made this cheesecake last night that has really good macros. Got the recipe here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=141848361



834 calories in the whole thing, 123g protein, 60g carb, 10g fat. I'm not a good cook whatsoever but it turned out well. Next time I'll cook a little less to see if I can avoid the cracks on the top.

The slice that's gone went to my girlfriend. I'm gonna crush the whole thing PWO tonight. Might grab some whipped cream to go on top.

[Edited on March 14, 2012 at 12:20 PM. Reason : ]

3/14/2012 12:14:33 PM

pimgrim, I realize that most people aren't interested in learning about nutrition, but when someone posts helpful information that other people may benefit from it would be nice if other people who know nothing didn't try to discredit it .


Also, the sugar industry is heavily connected to the government through lobbyists so it probably will never happen. In ~2005 we were paying $270,000/yr PER marginal American job saved in the sugar industry. We do this by taxing the everliving shit out of imported sugar (that is cheap as dogshit from countries who can easily produce sugar) and subsidizing american produced sugar (that is not cheaply produced here because we don't have the right climate). I'm sure that number has increased rapidly since then, but I haven't seen a recent statistic.

Basically, you pay a huge premium (more than double what you should be paying) for sugar already just so American producers can compete. We'd be better off axing everyone in the industry and paying them $100k/yr not to work. 98% of the workers in the industry would take the deal in a heartbeat, but the owners of the businesses would lose their ill gotten millions that way.

[Edited on March 14, 2012 at 12:28 PM. Reason : a]

[Edited on March 14, 2012 at 12:28 PM. Reason : a]

3/14/2012 12:24:29 PM

^^ Holy crap, I just poked around in that thread a little bit. Now I want to make all of them.

3/14/2012 12:29:15 PM

You can avoid cracks by baking the cheesecake in a pan of shallow water.

3/14/2012 12:35:36 PM

Lately I've been getting a lot of questions about food combining - the 'food purifies in your intestines' type.

What are your thoughts tdub? Any REPUTABLE data on this?

[Edited on March 14, 2012 at 2:17 PM. Reason : bullllllllshit]

3/14/2012 2:00:15 PM

anyone who says they are taking in less than 20g of carbs/day are totally full of crap.




also i will never skip breakfast. I'm sure there might be some short term advantages to it but if you have any history of diabetes in your family, skipping meals (also overeating during meals goes w/out saying) is a big no-no.

3/14/2012 10:04:05 PM

Quote :

"but if you have any history of diabetes in your family, skipping meals (also overeating during meals goes w/out saying) is a big no-no."

Any facts to support this statement?

3/14/2012 10:43:22 PM

I been having trouble with my pull ups and push ups, with my legs swinging somewhat wildly as I'm on my downstroke. Any pointers?

3/14/2012 10:52:47 PM

Are you crazy??? Skipping meals is one of the best ways to prevent diabetes. You want to maintain control of your insulin levels there is no better way than by fasting.

What the hell is going on here? This thread has turned to outright misinformation the past few pages.


^ on your pullups do you cross your legs behind you? I would recommend focusing hard on the negatives. Try to pull yourself up in explosive motions and lower your body weight under total control (~6 seconds to lower). Even if you can only do 1-2 of these at a time, do ~5 sets this way for a week or so and you'll get extremely notable strength gains and be in better control when you resume more normal pace later.

3/14/2012 11:10:18 PM

Quote :

"I been having trouble with my pull ups and push ups, with my legs swinging somewhat wildly as I'm on my downstroke. Any pointers?"

I had the same problem. What helped me stabilize was locking in my abs. Planks have helped - holding the locked abs/tight glutes position for 45-60 seconds at a time:

3/14/2012 11:18:00 PM

^Yep

Over hip swinging is from weak abs or just poor technique.

Solution: Learn to lock your core. If you can master locking hip extension with the glutes and stabilizing that posterior pelivic tilt with your abs, it should fix it. More fresh, flawless practice reps will help too.

3/15/2012 8:40:47 AM

Quote :

"What the hell is going on here? This thread has turned to outright misinformation the past few pages."

LOLZ this makes me laugh considering who started it all

OKAY stepping in and changing topics............

i'm preparing to kick porcha's ass in a pull up challenge on saturday

also - weight is 129.5

3/15/2012 8:44:56 AM

Pull up challenge? Pssht, I've lost 20lbs since the new year and am back up to 6 muscle ups, pull ups I'd estimate in the high teens

My tip for pull ups is do them with your eyes shut and focus on using the right muscles for the job. I feel it takes a lot of the arms out of the movement

3/15/2012 10:49:05 AM

^^ You are misremembering. I was the one with the good suggestion to skip breakfast in order to lose fat.

3/15/2012 10:57:55 AM

i was 230 earlier this week, but slid back up to 233 this morning

I have been hydrating like crazy though.

3/15/2012 11:49:03 AM

skipping meals doesn't CONTROL insulin levels, it causes unhealthy dips in the levels, and then when you eat again, you get unhealthy spikes. Also there's a good chance if you skip meals you risk overeating because you are hungrier, so the spike is even worse. We are not super disciplined robots ya know.


My dad never ate breakfast, then overate later in the day.....diabetes.

He had to learn the hard way to really control his blood glucose levels was to have several smaller meals throughout the day. You have to stay consistent.


I've lost more weight and more body fat percentage than I ever have before and i'm eating 5-6 meals/day and breakfast is one of my biggest meals if not THE biggest. I can't go more than 3 hours w/out getting hungry now and i'm in the best shape of my life.


and i'm not trying to knock your diet plan or anything, to each his own, I just know what works for me and I'm gonna stick with it.

i've lost nearly 40 pounds and >10% body fat doing it this way. (i was like 27-28% bf, now 16% and 200lbs)

plan on losing another 6% BF in the next 6 weeks if I can keep it up

3/15/2012 12:11:51 PM

if you were messing with me, well played.

3/15/2012 12:16:01 PM

Quote :

"Also there's a good chance if you skip meals you risk overeating because you are hungrier, so the spike is even worse. We are not super disciplined robots ya know. My dad never ate breakfast, then overate later in the day.....diabetes. "

The problem there is the overeating (and very likely, the kind of food that's being eaten), not the meal timing. Breakfast is not magic.

There are studies that show that people who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight, but this represents the standard American - skips breakfast due to laziness, wolves down a hoagie and a snickers bar for lunch, stops by McDonalds for dinner, and plows through a row of Oreos while watching TV. These studies are not made up of a significant number of people that intentionally skip breakfast in the way that IF suggests.

If you skip breakfast without really meaning to, yeah, you're probably going to overeat later. If you go about it deliberately and take care of your portion sizes and macronutrient intake, there's no problem. You don't have to be ultra disciplined, you just have to be willing to control what goes in your body.

Quote :

"and i'm not trying to knock your diet plan or anything, to each his own, I just know what works for me and I'm gonna stick with it. i've lost nearly 40 pounds and >10% body fat doing it this way. (i was like 27-28% bf, now 16% and 200lbs) plan on losing another 6% BF in the next 6 weeks if I can keep it up"

IF is actually targeted at people 10-12% body fat trying to get lower. I mean, it works for anyone, but once you get to those very low percentages, fasting proves to be a very effective way to get shredded without feeling cold, depressed, and deprived all the time.

[Edited on March 15, 2012 at 12:36 PM. Reason : ]

3/15/2012 12:33:42 PM