I tell my weight loss clients to have surgery

When I consult new clients, in 9 cases out of 10, their goal is to lose x amount of weight. The faster the better. I always give my clients two options. If their mind is set in stone to achieve this particular weight loss goal I'm not anyone to say no. I recommend them to go through surgery, which is the fastest weight loss method possible. Depending on if their weight loss goal is small or big, I tell them to either have an arm or a leg removed, in extreme cases even two legs.

Unfortunately, the clients who have the surgery never end up happy and satisfied with the results. They weigh themselves and the scales finally shows that magic number, the weight they always dreamt of. But no matter what, they still just don't like what they see in the mirror. And now they can't even exercise and perform like they used to, due to the lack of one or more limbs. This in turn leads to their mental health suffering, which in turn often leads to poor food choices, which in turn leads to putting all that weight back on and they end up more over-weight now than before the arm or leg removal.

The clients who are happy and satisfied with their body recomposition results though are the ones who chose to go for my second option. First of all I convince them to not lose weight, but to lose fat and gain muscle. I forbid them to measure and weigh themselves. So how do I measure fat loss and muscle gain? You can't! It's impossible to put an accurate number on it. Those are changes you can only see and feel. Even Dexa Scans are absolute bullshit. Do yourself a favour and don't buy into that crap.

I take pictures of my clients, but most importantly we focus on how they FEEL. I educate them on nutrition and we set performance based goals. Do they want to be able to squat 100 kilos, do a pull-up or run 400 metres in less than a minute? The feeling of succeeding in the gym and beating personal bests far outweighs the feeling of seeing the scales go from 85 to 83 kilos. Besides, how do you know those two kilos are fat and not just the massive poo you just did? As soon as the scales and their weight comes into the picture it starts playing mental games with them. I often hear my clients in huge excitement:
"I could fit into a pair of jeans that always used to be way too small for me the other day!!!"
Only for them to five seconds later turn around and say, with the biggest disappointment in their voice:
"But I haven't lost any weight..."

It breaks my heart seeing PT's assessing their clients with skinfold calipers, measuring tapes and making them step on the scales. I know the anxiety, frustration, fear and tears it has caused me in the past and I know how it causes the exact same feelings in clients. Not only will the clients beat themselves up when the numbers never meet their expectations, the dumb trainer question their results and effort too. And right there starts an endless cycle of guilt, shame, body dissatisfaction and anxiety.

The numbers are IRRELEVANT and here's proof. A client of mine who have only lost 1 kilo in the past 5 weeks. Look at the significant changes, which have been achieved by practicing a sport she loves and lots and lots of food:

Head to my Website or Facebook Page now for online coaching and personal training enquiries:
http://eatforperformance.com
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Why anyone wanting to improve strength and performance should take creatine

I often get asked what supplements it is worth spending money on. One of my top three favourites is creatine, because it can potentially increase your strength, power and performance and provide a greater resistance to fatigue. Research has shown that those participating in sports with a lot of explosive movements or high-intensity type of work, sprinters, crossfitters and weightlifters for example, will benefit the most from supplementing with creatine.

First of all, let me just clear one thing out. If your diet sucks, there is no point what so ever in spending any money on supplements. You will be better off investing in your grocery shopping to start with. Once you have that on point, then you can start looking into what supplements you could see benefits from.

What is Creatine?

Creatine is already created naturally in your body. The three amino acids glycine, arginine and methionine, and three enzymes with long complicated names I will not bother writing out, are required for your body to produce creatine. However it is not considered a protein even though it is a bi-product of amino acids. You get it in small quantities from proteins that you eat, in particular red meats. As you might understand, vegetarians and vegans therefore have a much lower intake of creatine than someone who eats meat.

A meat eater will generally get 1-2 grams of creatine from their food and the quantity of creatine you would get from a supplement could not be ingested from your diet alone. The most common form of creatine that people take as a supplement is creatine monohydrate in powder form which you mix in a glass of water or juice. Monohydrate is also the most researched type. Though, regardless of which type of creatine people supplement their training with, studies have frequently found greater increases in muscle mass and strength, when compared to training without a creatine supplement.

What happens in your body when you train?

In order for your muscles to produce movement or to lift a weight, they have to contract. In order for them to contract, you need to use adenosine tri-phosphate, more commonly known as ATP. This is the source of energy for every muscle and every cell in your body. During a muscle contraction, ATP will be broken down to adenosine di-phosphate, ADP. This is when energy gets released and allows you to move around or push that weight.

Your body has three different energy systems that ATP gets produced through. The phosphagen system, the glycogen-lactic acid system and the aerobic respiration system. I will only talk about the phosphagen system here, as it is the only energy system relevant talking about regarding creatine use. Through this system ATP will be produced as long as phosphocreatine (PCR) is available within your muscle cells. Someones anaerobic capacity is determined by the content of PCR in the muscle and the muscles capacity to buffer PCR.

After a few seconds of performing something with a maximal effort, there is a decline in maximal performance, in other words fatigue occurs. You know when you are doing squats, you get to rep number 4 and on your 5th rep you fail. Or it could be when you are doing a 100 meter sprint, but after 80 meters you fatigue and physically can not keep pushing as hard anymore. That is because at that point, your ATP usage has exceeded your ATP storage and production. Your PCR levels are depleted and therefore you can not synthesize more ATP through your phospagen system, to allow you to keep pushing with a maximal effort. But! When you rest, the PCR is re-synthesized quickly and after up to 4 minutes your body will have recreated about 95%.

What does creatine supplementation do for me?

Creatine supplementation will increase your ATP production and it increases the muscles capability to store this biochemical, by increasing the PCR buffers in your muscles. It will allow you to push that 5th rep or last the whole 100 meter sprint before you fatigue. Because creatine supplementation results in more ATP output and a more rapid regeneration of ATP when you are resting between sets, it allows you to maintain a higher workout intensity and will improve your training quality.

In terms of overall recovery after a workout is finished, creatine supplementation will benefit you as well, by hydrating your muscle cells to a greater extent than normal. Potentially, when creatine and water is pulled into your muscle cells, things your body are going to need for recovery will be pulled in there along with it, in other words amino acids and electrolytes. The more liquid that can be pulled in, the more amino acids and electrolytes will follow, therefore it may increase your ability to recover, grow and rebuild your muscles.

How will it benefit your strength and performance according to studies?

Creatine is probably one of the most researched supplements on the market and here is what some of the studies have found. 

One study I looked at found significant increases in lean body mass and total body mass (+1.2kgs) after 6 weeks of creatine use in combination with resistance training in a group of 9 males. They also experienced large increases in preacher curl, squat and bench press strength. The same size placebo-group did not see any significant changes in strength or body mass (+0.21kgs) and no change in percentage of body fat, following the same training protocol for 6 weeks.

Another study performed on women found that creatine used in combination with 12 weeks resistance training increased 1RM bench press, bicep curl and knee extension more than when resistance training was performed without creatine use. The same study also found resistance training with creatine use to improve the efficiency to perform certain functional sub maximal strength tests and a greater increase in muscle mass, as compared to resistance training alone.

A meta-analysis on creatine supplementation studies showed that individuals performing heavy strength training while using creatine on average achieve +8% more improvements in 1RM lifts and +14% more endurance strength, as compared to placebo groups.

A 7 week study on professional elite soccer players found that creatine monohydrate supplementation was beneficial. A group supplementing with creatine experienced less training-induced fatigue and less decline in lower-body power and performance, as compared to a group that was given a placebo substance.

When should you take creatine?

In terms of timing of ingestion, there was no significant difference found in increased muscle mass and strength gains in a 12 week study where they compared creatine ingestion before resistance training versus after resistance training. However this study was performed on older adults. A study performed on younger individuals who were experienced in resistance training from previously saw greater benefits in regards to strength and body composition, from taking their creatine post-workout as opposed to pre-workout.

Some studies suggest taking your creatine along with simple carbohydrates after a workout for best absorption, because insulin can play a role in enhancing the accumulation of creatine in your muscles. However this has only been seen after consumption of large amounts of simple carbohydrates, and to over-consume sugary foods might not be beneficial for some people, for obvious reasons.

How much should you take?

It will take approximately 2 weeks for your body to absorb and reach the maximum possible levels of creatine content within your muscle cells. If you want to reach your maximum level faster, you can do a ”loading phase” where you for 5-7 days ingest 0.3 grams of creatine per kilo of body weight divided into four equal doses per day. A 60 kg female following this approach would load with 4.5 grams taken four times per day and then she would drop that to her chosen maintenance dose. Most studies have investigated ingesting 3-5 grams per day and found positive benefits from doing so, regardless of bodyweight. Some studies suggest dosing relative to your bodyweight, the most common recommendation being 0.1 gram per kilo of bodyweight, meaning a 60 kg female would ingest 6 grams per day.

By the end of two weeks, comparing one person who has done the loading phase method and another person who has taken their maintenance dose from the start, will not have a difference in creatine content in their muscle cells.

Is it safe?

It is commonly, and wrongly, discussed that creatine use may cause subcutaneous water retention, meaning water underneath your skin, making you appear bloated and swollen. The water weight gain it causes is just an increased water content within the muscle cell and it will not make you look bloated. It will cause a weight gain though and if you participate in a sport where you need to make weight for a contest this is something you may want to keep in mind.

Another thing you may have heard is that creatine supplementation could cause kidney or liver damage, however numerous studies have looked into this and all of them have concluded that long-term creatine use does not result in liver damage nor kidney issues.

A third side-effect people often talk about, but which have not been reported in any studies either, is that creatine use can cause stomach cramps and gastrointestinal discomfort. Even though there is no scientific evidence for this I personally believe that this can be the case for some people. This is probably depending on what brand you use. I say this because I have experienced horrible stomach cramps after taking creatine myself, but this only happened to me from two certain brands. From other brands I have seen great results and never experienced any problems.

In one study I came across an interesting potential explanation as to why people report negative side effects from creatine use, even though there has never been any scientific studies reporting these problems. Other than the intramuscular water weight gain of course (which actually is a positive outcome). It may be because the creatine used in studies are of higher quality than what is available on the market. With this in mind, and with what I said above about me experiencing severe stomach cramps a couple of times, do your research and find a brand, dose and loading method that works for you.

I also think it is worth a mention that some people may be non-responders to creatine supplementation. The reasoning and theories behind this differ. One potential explanation is that individuals who initially have a greater cross-sectional area of their muscle fibers as well as more fast twitch muscle fibers respond better to creatine ingestion. They can increase their muscle creatine more, as opposed to someone with less fast twitch muscle fibers and smaller cross-sectional area of their muscle fibers. Try, try again and try different brands until you find what works for you.

If you need help to optimize your performance and body composition while learning about nutrition and supplements, contact me HERE for specialized online coaching and receive your first two weeks for FREE for a limited time.

Some further reading and references:

Aguiar, A., Januário, R., Junior, R., Gerage, A., Pina, F., Nascimento, M., & Cyrino, E. (2013). Long-term creatine supplementation improves muscular performance during resistance training in older women. European Journal Of Applied Physiology, 113(4), 987-996.

Antonio, J., & Ciccone, V. (2013). The effects of pre versus post workout supplementation of creatine monohydrate on body composition and strength. Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition, 10(1), 1-8.

Candow, D. G., Zello, G. A., Ling, B., Farthing, J. P., Chilibeck, P. D., McLeod, K., & Johnson, S. (2014). Comparison of Creatine Supplementation Before Versus After Supervised Resistance Training in Healthy Older Adults. Research In Sports Medicine, 22(1), 61-74.

Claudino, J. G., Mezêncio, B., Amaral, S., Zanetti, V., Benatti, F., Roschel, H., & Serrão, J. C. (2014). Creatine monohydrate supplementation on lower-limb muscle power in Brazilian elite soccer players. Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition, 11(1), 1-14.

Cooper, R., Naclerio, F., Allgrove, J. & Jimenez, A. (2012). Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: an update.. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 9(1), 33-43.

Flanagan, E. P. (2007). Creatine Supplementation: Implications for the Competitive Weightlifter.Strength & Conditioning Journal (Allen Press), 29(2), 60-66.

Francaux, M., & Poortmans, J. R. (2006). Side Effects of Creatine Supplementation in Athletes.International Journal Of Sports Physiology & Performance, 1(4), 311-323.

Garazhian, Y., & Azimkhani, A. (2014). Combined Effects of Prolonged Creatine Supplementation and Resistance Training on Muscular Strength and Body Composition in Collegiate Athletes. Pamukkale Journal Of Sport Sciences, 5(2), 60-74.

Lemon, P. W. (2002). Dietaryy Creatine Supplementation and Exercise Performance: Why Inconsistent Results?. Canadian Journal Of Applied Physiology, 27(6), 663-680.

Oliver, J. M., Jagim, A. R., Pischel, I., Jäger, R., Purpura, M., Sanchez, A., & ... Kreider, R. B. (2014). Effects of short-term ingestion of Russian Tarragon prior to creatine monohydrate supplementation on whole body and muscle creatine retention and anaerobic sprint capacity: a preliminary investigation. Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition, 11(1), 1-18.

Rawson ES, Volek JS: Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. J Strength Cond Res 2003, 17:822–831.

Sahlin, K. (2014). Muscle Energetics During Explosive Activities and Potential Effects of Nutrition and Training. Sports Medicine, 44167-173.

Souza-Junior, T., Willardson, J., Bloomer, R., Leite, R., Fleck, S., Oliviera, P. & Simao, R. (2011). Strength and hypertrophy responses to constant and decreasing rest intervals in trained men using creatine supplementation. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 8(1), 17-27.

What the hell is a macro and why should you count them?

How you look is a by-product of your training and your training is a by-product of the food and fuel you put into your body. So it would make sense to first and foremost focus on your nutrition, to Eat for Performance, right? Because if you eat primarily to perform well, you will be able to train harder, beat your personal bests and most importantly HAVE FUN. Thereby, as a positive bonus, you will achieve your body composition goals. A common mistake a lot of people do when they are trying to lose fat or make lean gains is, hold your breath; they don't eat enough. Or, they eat "clean" as they like to call it, but too much.

By learning how to implement flexibility, being consistent and eating for performance you will prevent failure and achieve your goals effectively. It won't even be hard, boring or restrictive, because you will be able to implement your favourite foods daily. Yes. Even ice-cream, as long as it is kept within your daily macro limit. If this sound too good to be true, contact me NOW by clicking HERE and I will prove you wrong. I offer your first two weeks for free for a limited time.

The only two rules that are going to help you achieve your goals are CONSISTENCY and SUSTAINABILITY. You need to be consistent with what you are doing and what you are doing needs to be sustainable. Going on a strict diet or depriving yourself of certain foods is not sustainable, therefore you can't be consistent with it either. So eventually you will fail. Are you with me?

Nutrients are what living organisms needs to live and function. We have two categories of those; Macronutrients are made up of protein, carbohydrates and fat. These are the kind of nutrients our body needs in larger quantities, the fuel, what our body uses to produce energy and tissue.

Micronutrients are more commonly known as vitamins and minerals, which our body only requires small amounts of. They support our metabolism and assists our body with the chemical reactions to keep it alive, healthy and developing.

Protein

Your body needs amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein, for many important bodily functions. It is used to maintain your immune and cellular function, replicate your DNA and build and repair tissues in your body. For someone who trains protein plays a very important role, since it is responsible for muscular growth and repair. What you are doing by training is basically breaking down your muscles. To recover and let your muscles rebuild themselves bigger and stronger, you need to consume protein.

Carbohydrates

You have probably heard a million times by now that carbs will make you fat. Wrong! If you are going to participate in something that requires energy, for example being alive, or you want to have fun with your training, experience optimal performance, be able to train hard and beat your personal bests: You. Need. Carbs.

When you eat carbs they are converted into glucose and fructose, which is the most readily energy source for the body to use. Fructose is absorbed freely while glucose needs help from insulin, which is an anabolic hormone with strong effects on tissue growth. Your pancreas starts producing insulin when you consume carbs and this hormone then makes cells absorb blood glucose to use for either energy or storage. What is immediately needed will be used as energy and the rest will be stored inside your muscles and liver as glycogen for the body to use later. Like a reserve tank. When the storages are full, the rest will be converted into fatty acids which gets stored in your fat cells. This means that carbs will only make you fat if you eat more than you need.

Fats

Fats are super important for your body to function at optimal levels. To start with, they are the basic building blocks of several hormones. Without adequate fat intake you can expect inefficient hormone production and forget all about hormone balance. And if your hormones are all over the place, expect the same for your health, happiness and well-being.

You also need fats to maintain healthy and pain-free joints, something which you'll appreciate if you train regularly. They are needed for your body to absorb fat soluble vitamins, in other words A-, D-, E- and K-vitamins. If you want nice, smooth and fresh looking skin and hair, fats will serve you well. The list can be made long.

Calories

The calories you eat are metabolized, "burned", by your body. If you eat more than you burn, you'll gain tissue, and vice versa, if you eat less than you require, you'll lose tissue. By figuring out your baseline needs, in other words what your body needs to maintain its current shape, we can then start manipulating and increase or decrease your intake. This is depending on what your goals are, performance based as well as body composition wise. It is also dependent of what your training and lifestyle looks like and how your body adapts, transforms and changes.

Micronutrients

To ensure an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals for optimal health and performance, the majority of the food you eat should be high in micronutrients. In other words, you need to make smart food choices. Now that doesn't mean you ONLY have to eat "healthy" and nutrient rich foods, it just means that you should eat more of it than ice cream.

What happens when you eat too much healthy food?

The fact that you cut out everything that are considered "unhealthy" from your diet and start living off salads, chicken and broccoli will not necessarily help you lose fat. If you don't keep track of what goes inside your body you may be eating 3000 calories when your body only needs 2500. If two people both have the same daily baseline needs, lets say 2500 calories, and one of them eats 3000 calories worth of ice cream daily and the other one eats 3000 calories worth of broccoli, they will both gain weight regardless.

Your body doesn't know the difference between "clean" and "dirty" when it comes to changing body composition. It will only register protein, carbs, fats and micronutrients. But obviously, by consuming your daily intake from ice cream only you are not taking your health into consideration, because you will not consume adequate amounts of micronutrients, even though you might experience weight loss. But consuming majority of your daily intake from nutrient rich foods and having ice cream in moderation, will NOT make you gain weight, as long as it is within your individual macro and caloric limit.

What happens when you don't eat enough?

As contradictive as it sounds, you will not lose weight in the long-term by going on a low-calorie diet and it may have extremely bad consequences for your physical and mental health. During periods of caloric restriction you will experience decreases in the hormones leptin, testosterone and insulin, as well as T3 and T4, our thyroid hormones. Meanwhile, the hormones ghrelin and cortisol will be elevated.

The body interprets a decline in blood leptin as starvation, in turn the secretion of ghrelin is increased, "the hunger hormone". It makes you hungrier by promoting gastric emptying. At the same time, low levels of leptin and insulin increases your smelling capabilities and sweet tasting abilities. You will crave sugary and fatty foods and are more prone to eventually binge eat. Binge eating makes you feel guilty or like a failure, which in turn leads to giving up. Not. Sustainable.

Several studies have found a strong relationship between when people go on restrictive diets and the development of binge eating disorder. Many people go on hardcore diets and then use their decreased leptin levels as an excuse to binge eat, or having a "re-feed" or cheat meal/cheat day, to increase their leptin levels and speed their metabolism up again. But if you never deprive yourself of your favourite foods and never restrict your calories to that extent, you will never decrease your leptin levels and never need to re-feed (binge eat) to increase them back again. Nor will you need to satisfy your cravings by "cheating", because you won't have any.

Another hormone that is affected by caloric restriction is cortisol, more commonly known as a stress hormone. Chronically elevated cortisol levels have negative effects on your health, by partially shutting down your immune system, elevating blood pressure and upsetting your digestive system, among other things. It also slows down your metabolism, by decreasing thyroid hormone production.

Negative effects of restricting carbs and/or fats

As I mentioned earlier, insufficient intake of fats affects your hormone production. The balance between estrogen and progesterone will be out of whack and testosterone production will be lowered. This goes for both men and women and all these factors not only inhibits your fat loss and prevents muscle gain, but it will negatively effect your mental well-being and sex drive.

When you don't consume enough carbohydrates to provide you with energy for your workouts, your performance will suffer. You will struggle to maintain, let alone improve strength, speed, agility, endurance and so on. And did you know that your brain is dependent on glycogen to function as well? This means that just like you will not be able to perform physically, your mental performance will suffer as well. Being motivated and in a positive mental state is equally important when it comes to improving performance, and body composition.

Contact me now and lets get started! You don't know how to count macros? Not a problem, that's what I'm here for, to educate you, make everything simple and help you reach your goals by finding what is sustainable for you.

www.eatforperformance.com

Some further reading and references:
Pasiakos, S. M., Caruso, C. M., Kellogg, M. D., Kramer, F. M., & Lieberman, H. R. (2011). Appetite and Endocrine Regulators of Energy Balance After 2 Days of Energy Restriction: Insulin, Leptin, Ghrelin, and DHEA-S. Obesity (19307381), 19(6), 1124-1130.
Williams, G. (2016). Binge Eating and Binge Eating Disorder in Athletes: A Review of Theory and Evidence. Sport Journal, 1.
Heaney, J. J., Carroll, D., & Phillips, A. C. (2014). Physical Activity, Life Events Stress, Cortisol, and DHEA: Preliminary Findings That Physical Activity May Buffer Against the Negative Effects of Stress. Journal Of Aging & Physical Activity, 22(4), 465-473.
http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/the-ups-and-downs-of-cortisol-what-you-need-to-know

I'M HERE NOW!

I have written four different "Hi-and-welcome-to-my-new-blog"-posts now. A podcast was also on my mind for a while, until I heard a recording of my own voice and decided it was perhaps best to never speak again. Unfortunately, these introductions all ended up being novels which you'd get bored of reading before you got half-way through anyway. You know when the caffeine kicks in and you are just so fucking productive, everything about you is brilliant. Before you know it you have come up with this amazing idea on how you are going to save the world. You drop everything at hand because you gotta get that shit done NOW, because for all you know tomorrow it might be too late. Before I published, to maintain my professional image, I had to proof read of course (this is when the coffee-kick started to taper down) and found myself reading about how I come riding on my unicorn, defeating Donald Trump and peeing on Hitlers grave.

...Hang on a minute. How am I going to transport my unicorn all the way to America? And Hitler doesn't even have a grave, does he? And yeah. Before I could save the world, coffee-rehab was in its place. Hence the delay of my blog release. You see, when I moved to Australia from Sweden, my biggest concern wasn't the sharks, snakes or meat-eating koalas you often find climbing in your backyard. Not even the spiders, and my spider phobia is SEVERE. It was: Will I be able to get a hold of decent coffee? One of the reasons I came here was to bring "fika" to the Australian vocabulary.

I have proof read this post so many times now too, that I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to get to anymore. To the point. This blog is amazing because it's written by me and you should read it because:

1. The fitness industry is heading in the wrong direction, where it has become all about money, what you look like, obsessing over the mirror and people developing disturbed relationships to food, training and each other.

2. There are those who are obsessed, then there are those who totally lack knowledge about nutrition and interest in exercise, or understand the importance of those two.

And 3. This needs a change. And I'm awesome (and maybe a bit vain) and have a lot to share and teach. Behold!

I guess there'll be a little bit about everything else here too. What makes me happy and what I dreamt of last night and so on. But absolutely not what I had for lunch. Unless it was Mexican seasoned kangaroo steak with asparagus and peanut butter. That shit deserves publicity.

If you haven't already you should check out my website www.eatforperformance.com where you can find more information about who I am and what I do. My next post will probably be taken from there, namely; My Story & Vision. But if you are keen you can head there and read it straight away.

Bye for now.