Functional Diagnostic Nutrition

What is FDN?FDN is a type of detective work that seeks to find the und ... http://p.ost.im/p/dUeWdS

Top 9 Most Important Foods to Buy Organic

In a perfect world, we’d all be shopping at farmers markets for our p ... http://p.ost.im/p/dDFeVX

The Truth about Cardio vs. Strength Training

You run and you run, and you don't shed a pound. It's one of the leading emotional pain points for people who e ... http://p.ost.im/p/dAtq4T

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!Dear Fit Crew athletes,We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a couple days off. ... http://p.ost.im/p/dAH6Kw

The Dark Side of America’s Favorite “Health” Food

BY JJ VIRGINNext time you visit your local health food store or Whole Foods, count how many soy foods you c ... http://p.ost.im/p/dSEkHj

Would You Like Toxins with Your Turkey?

by Sean CroxtonThis one blew me away.I was taking David Getoff’s holistic health class back in 2008. ... http://p.ost.im/p/dSqymc

Winter Newsletter

Dear Athletes,We can’t start this newsletter without saying THANK YOU! We are so happy about the success ... http://p.ost.im/p/dSFKA2

5 Reasons to Ditch Gluten

By JJ VirginHere are 5 reasons why going gluten-free can burn fat, eliminate symptoms, and feel and look yo ... http://p.ost.im/p/dBaKNf

How to Save Thousands of Dollars Each Month & Get Fast Fat Loss

OCTOBER 18, 2012 BY JJ VIRGINYour neighbor’s barking dog, along with the construction crew down the stree ... http://p.ost.im/p/dB2Tf8

FAQs: How can I eat Paleo on a budget?

source: balancedbites.comI’ve covered this topic once already in my Priorities for Eating Paleo on a Budg ... http://p.ost.im/p/dhVSGY

Body Fat Competition

Attention Body Fat Challenge Competitors!!! Final measurements will take place this Wednesday-Friday before and ... http://p.ost.im/p/dhWPaT

Why DId My Cholesterol Go Up After Going Primal/Paleo?

Why Did My Cholesterol Go Up After Going Primal?While the majority of people who go Primal see their blood li ... http://p.ost.im/p/dkJgcC

The Problems with Modern Wheat

This may seem like a redundant topic, since most of you following a Primal eating plan are already avoiding whe ... http://p.ost.im/p/dhxpJj

Hunter Gatherer Clue to Obesity

Hunter Gatherer Clue to Obesityby Dr. MercolaCould it be that the number of calories you burn in a day is ... http://p.ost.im/p/dh9Qmg

The Fit Crew Games Tarpon Pointe Grill 2012

Ask and you shall receive!! We have heard from many members that they want more competition and more ways to so ... http://p.ost.im/p/dMraLL

Beast Mode!!!

... http://p.ost.im/p/d65PFb

Wow...sad but true!

“We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made f ... http://p.ost.im/p/djKuCN

Body Fat Challenge

Not your typical weight loss competition!!

You should know by now- We don’t care about what the scale says!!!! We care about your body fat percentage and how low you can get that number to go…We know- it’s no easy task shedding fat! It takes commitment- watching what you eat- and working out hard!! So we are challenging YOU to DROP your number!!!

RULES (are simple):

*Between Monday, September 24 and Wednesday, September 26- meet with Andrew to get your body fat percentage!

*Competition starts September 27!

*Competition ends October 27!

The person with the most percentage of percent lost of body fat- WINS!!

May the best beast win!!! (and yes…there will be prizes:)

Snatch Instruction, Burgener

Fat, Not Glucose, is the Preferred Fuel for Your Body

By Dr. Mercola

While we may consider ourselves to be at the pinnacle of human development, our modern food manufacturing processes have utterly failed at improving health and increasing longevity.

During the Paleolithic period, many thousands of years ago, our ancestors ate primarily vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots and meat—and a wide variety of it. This diet was high in fats and protein, and low in grain- and sugar-derived carbohydrates.

The average person’s diet today, on the other hand, is the complete opposite, and the average person’s health is a testament of what happens when you adhere to a faulty diet. Humans today suffer more chronic and debilitating diseases than ever before.

And there can be little doubt that our food choices play a major role in this development. Quite simply, you were not designed to eat large amounts of refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, cereal, bread, potatoes and pasteurized milk products.

As Mark Sisson states in the featured article¹:

“If you want to live a better life and eat the best foods nature provided for health and fitness, then it's time to ditch the old paradigms and climb on to the primal approach to eating better.”

Is Glucose Really Your Body’s Preferred Fuel?

The notion that glucose is the preferred fuel for your body is a pervasive one. Everyone from diabetics to top athletes are advised to make sure they eat “enough” carbs to keep their systems from crashing. This is unfortunate, as this misguided advice is at the very heart of many of our current health failures.

As Mark so succinctly spells out in his article, FAT is actually the preferred fuel of human metabolism, and this can be traced back to our evolutionary roots.

Historically speaking, carbohydrate intake has always been quite low. Likewise, the diseases we now know are associated with insulin resistance—which is primarily caused by excess consumption of refined carbs—have been quite rare.

The evidence is both clear and overwhelming: Carbohydrate intake is the primary factor that determines your body’s fat ratio, and processed grains and sugars (particularly fructose) are the primary culprits behind our skyrocketing obesity and diabetes rates.

“It follows logically that if you can limit carb intake to a range of which is absolutely necessary (and even up to 50 grams a day over) and make the difference up with tasty fats and protein, you can literally reprogram your genesback to the evolutionary-based factory setting you had at birth – the setting that offered you the opportunity to start life as a truly efficient fat-burning organism and to continue to do so for the rest of your life as long as you send the right signals to your genes,” Mark writes.

Why the Low-Carb/High-Fat Diet Works for Weight Loss

Switching from a carb-based diet to a fat- and protein-based diet will help rebalance your body’s chemistry, and a natural side effect of this is weight loss, and/or improved weight management once you’re at an ideal weight. One explanation for this is that you don't really get fat from eating too much and exercising too little.  Nor do you get fat from eating fat. One researcher that has clearly established this is Dr. Richard Johnson, whose latest book, The Fat Switch, dispels many of the most pervasive myths relating to diet and obesity.

Dr. Johnson discovered the method that animals use to gain fat prior to times of food scarcity, which turned out to be a powerful adaptive benefit. His research showed that fructose activates a key enzyme, fructokinase, which in turn activates another enzyme that causes cells to accumulate fat. When this enzyme is blocked, fat cannot be stored in the cell. Interestingly, this is the exact same “switch” animals use to fatten up in the fall and to burn fat during the winter. Fructoseis the dietary ingredient that turns on this “switch,” causing cells to accumulate fat, both in animals and in humans.

In essence, overeating and excess weight could be viewed as a symptom of an improper diet. It’s not necessarily the result of eating too many calories, per se, but rather getting your calories from the wrong sources. In simple terms, when you consume too many sugars and carbs, you set off a cascade of chemical reactions in your body that makes you hungry and craving for sweets:

1. First, fructose is metabolized differently from glucose, with the majority being turned directly into fat because fructose stimulates a powerful “fat switch.”
2. This rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity ("beer belly"), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure—i.e., classic metabolic syndrome.
3. Dietary carbohydrates, especially fructose, are also the primary source of a substance called glycerol-3-phosphate (g-3-p), which causes fat to become fixed in fat tissue
4. At the same time, high carb intake raises your insulin levels, which prevents fat from being released
5. Fructose further tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your body's appetite-control system. Fructose does not suppress ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") and doesn't stimulate leptin (the "satiety hormone"), which together result in feeling hungry all the time, even though you've eaten. As a result, you overeat and develop insulin resistance, which is not only an underlying factor of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a long list of other chronic diseases

The resulting equation is simple: fructose and dietary carbohydrates (grains, which break down into sugar) lead to excess body fat, obesity and related health issues.  Furthermore, no amount of exercise can compensate for this damage because if you eat excessive  fructose and grains—the primary ingredients NOT found in our ancestral diet—it will activate programming to cause your body to become, and remain, fat.

How Much Glucose or Carbs Do You Really Need?

The debate about whether or not you really need glucose, and if so, how much, is by no means settled. Earlier this year, I ran a series of articles featuring the back-and-forth discussion between two well-researched experts on this topic, Dr. Jaminet and Dr. Rosedale.

Dr. Jaminet is a proponent of so-called “safe starches,” and is of the conviction that depleting your glycogen store can stress other systems to provide the glucose your body requires to perform. Dr. Rosedale, on the other hand, points out that because glucose consumption will undoubtedly spike blood glucose levels and increase insulin and leptin, promoting resistance, glucose consumption is always associated with some incremental degree of damage and/or increased risk of mortality. His diet is subsequently extremely carb-restrictive.

Yet another diet similar to Drs. Jaminet and Rosedale's is the GAPS diet, created by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, which is specifically designed to help “heal and seal” your gut. As such, it primarily consists of easily digestible, lightly cooked foods that are high in protein, fats, and fermented foods, and low in fiber and carbs.

Mark Sisson also adds valuable insight to this discussion²:

“At any one time, the total amount of glucose dissolved in the bloodstream of a healthy non-diabetic is equivalent to only a teaspoon (maybe 5 grams). Much more than that is toxic; much less than that and you pass out. That’s not much range for a so-called “preferred” fuel, is it?

Several studies have shown that under normal low MET conditions (at rest or low-to mid- levels of activity such as walking and easy work) the body only needs about 5 grams of glucose an hour. And that’s for people who aren’t yet fat-adapted or keto-adapted. The brain is the major consumer of glucose, needing maybe 120 grams a day in people who aren’t yet on a low carb eating program.

Low carb eating reduces the brain’s glucose requirements considerably, and those who are very low carb (VLC) and keto-adapted may only require about 30 grams of glucose per day to fuel the brain... Twenty of those grams can come from glycerol (a byproduct of fat metabolism) and the balance from gluconeogenesis in the liver (which can actually make up to a whopping 150 grams a day if you haven’t metabolically damaged it with NAFLD through fructose overdosing).

Bottom line, unless you are a physical laborer or are training (exercising) hard on a daily basis, once you become fat-adapted, you probably don’t ever need to consume more than 150 grams of dietary carbs – and you can probably thrive on far less. Many Pbers [Mark’s diet, Primal Blueprint] do very well (including working out) on 30-70 grams a day.”[Emphasis mine]

Key Point: Replace Carbs with Healthful Fats

As I see it, this is really a non-issue for most people as few people anywhere near Dr. Jaminet's recommendation of cutting carbs from the standard 50 percent down to 20-30 percent of total calories. However, if you’ve already begun to seriously address your carb intake then you may want to experiment with various amounts of “safe carbs” like rice and potatoes. As Mark describes, the actual amount of carbs could vary anywhere from 30 to 150 grams a day, depending on whether your body has adapted to burning ketones and your level of exercise.

Keep in mind that when we're talking about harmful carbs, we're only referring to grains and sugars, NOT vegetable carbs.

When you cut grain/sugar carbs you actually need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat since, by volume, the grains you need to trade out are denser than vegetables. You also need to dramatically increase healthful fats such as avocados, coconut oil, egg yolks, raw grass fed organic butter, olives and nuts.

You would not want to use highly processed and genetically engineered omega-6 oils like corn, canola and soy as they will upset your omega 6/3 ratio. Of course you want to avoid all trans fats, but contrary to popular advice, saturated fats are a key component of a healthy diet that will promote weight loss.

A reasonable goal will be to have as much as 50-70 percent of your diet as healthy fat, which will radically reduce your carbohydrate intake. It can be helpful to remember that fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and  feel ravenous, this is a sign that you have not replaced them with sufficient amounts of healthy fat. Sources of healthy fats that you'll want to add to your diet include:

Olives and Olive oil (for cold dishes)	Coconuts, and coconut oil(for all types of cooking and baking)	Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw Nuts, such as, almonds or pecans	Organic pastured egg yolks	Avocados
Pasture finished meats	Palm oil	Unheated organic nut oils

Most people will likely notice massive improvement in their health by following this approach as they are presently consuming FAR more grain and bean carbohydrates in their diet, and any reduction will be a step in the right direction.  To help you get started on the right track, review my Nutritional Plan, which guides you through these dietary changes one step at a time.

Recent Research Confirms Benefits of Low-Carb/High-Fat Diet

Conventional advice has focused on low-fat diets for weight loss and heart disease prevention, but again and again, studies demonstrate that this advice is diametrically opposed to reality... In one such study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Heart and Vascular Institute compared the effects of two diets on vascular health; one low in fat, the other low in carbs. The study in question was presented at this year's meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver, on June 3³.

The study included a total of 46 men and women weighing on average 218 pounds. The six-month long weight loss program consisted of moderate aerobic exercise and strength training, and one of two diets, either:

• Low-carb, high-fat: Less than 30 percent of calories from carbs (pastas, breads and sugary fruits), and up to 40 percent from fats (meat, dairy products, and nuts)
• Low-fat, high-carb diet: Less than 30 percent of calories from fat, and 55 percent from carbs

The low-carb group on average shed 10 pounds in 45 days, while the low-fat group took 70 days to lose the same amount of weight. In terms of vascular health, the low-carb, high-fat dieters showed no harmful vascular changes, which is the primary reason for why so many are afraid of high-fat diets.

According to the lead investigator, professor of medicine and director of clinical and research exercise physiology, Kerry Stewart, Ed.D:

"Our study should help allay the concerns that many people who need to lose weight have about choosing a low-carb diet instead of a low-fat one, and provide re-assurance that both types of diet are effective at weight loss and that a low-carb approach does not seem to pose any immediate risk to vascular health. More people should be considering a low-carb diet as a good option."

Stewart also believes that the emphasis on low-fat diets has likely contributed to the obesity epidemic in the US by promoting overconsumption of sugars and grains. I couldn't agree more. The simple reason for this is that grains and sugars raise your insulin levels, which causes insulin resistance and, ultimately, weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease.

Listen to Your Body

The evidence is quite clear that chronically raising your blood glucose through consumption of grains and sugars will increase your insulin resistance, which in turn will increase insulin and leptin resistance. And avoiding insulin and leptin resistance is perhaps the single most important factors if you seek optimal health and longevity.

That said, the degree to which you choose to reduce carbs however is, ultimately, up to you. And certain individual biochemical differences can make one diet more beneficial for you than others. The key point is to be aware that consuming sugar, grains and starches will promote insulin resistance to some degree or other, depending on the amount you consume.

As always, remember to listen to your body as it will give you feedback if what you are doing is right for your unique biochemistry and genetics. So listen to that feedback and adjust your program accordingly.

CrossFit - Training the Clean, Coach Burgener

Here's the pizza recipe everyone has been asking for...

cauliflower crust pizza

Serves 2; Adapted from Your Lighter Side.

ingredients:

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)

pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

directions:

To "Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!

*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

Note for those that don’ t have a microwave:

You can steam the florets on the stove before ricing them. The texture/consistency won’t be the same (It will be more like a puree) but it still works fine once you mix all the ingredients together! I know because I’ve tried it that way too!

source: http://www.eat-drink-smile.com/

Importance of Foam Rolling (Self Myofascial Release)

Massage is great for helping muscles recover, improving mobility and reducing aches and pains from training and competition. The performance-enhancing technique is based on myofascial release—i.e., reducing the tightness in fibrous tissue and muscles by applying pressure to them.

You can gain most of the benefits of myofacial release with a foam roller—a dense foam cylinder. Athletes should slowly roll over the desired area, focusing on spots that are particularly sensitive, to eliminate tightness. Target areas include the IT Bands [outside of thighs], glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves and upper back.

Experts recommend foam rolling both before and after a workout—before to loosen up muscles and after to remove any toxins (such as lactic acid). Feel free to foam roll every day to maximize the benefits.
At first, foam rolling may feel uncomfortable or even slightly painful; however, over time pain and discomfort decline as your muscles and tissue are loosened. After continued use, you should notice a dramatic reduction in tightness as well as enhanced mobility and flexibility, all of which are particularly beneficial to athletes seeking to maintain full range of motion in their joints. Flexibility allows you to properly execute skills without any hindrances.

source: stack.com

Today's WOD

3 15 min WODs AMRAP.

2 length One arm plate sled push/pull
15 Hang Cleans

Row 500 meters
15/leg pistols

How many laps can you run?

Today's WOD

Today's WOD

July 4th WOD

Today's WOD

2 Rounds for time of:
70 Burpees
60 sit ups
50 KB Swing
40 Pull ups
30 HSPU

WOD

Accomplishments

Well done everyone!!!

Today's WOD

The truth about energy for athletes

Energy Rules

September 17 2005 | 38,180 views | 

By Dr. Ben Lerner

What are the real rules when it comes to energy and the "benefits" of the energy industry?

Like a bunch of mad scientists, athletes and weekend warriors of all kinds try mixing all types of powders, drinks, bars, herbs, vitamins, carbs, fats and proteins in an effort to give themselves an edge for the game, test or workout.

When I first went to work with athletes at the Olympic Training Center, I expected to see young men and women fanatical about nutrition.

When I got to the Training Center cafeteria in Colorado Springs where all of the resident athletes eat, I was both pleased and surprised. I was pleased by the fact that they had a great variety of many healthy options. I was also surprised by the fact that, many, if not most of the athletes, still made unwise food choices.

At my first breakfast there, I was the only one at my table not eating Capt. Crunch or Fruit Loops!

Many athletically gifted people convert just about anything into lean, ready to perform, muscles. Sugar and chemicals or vegetables and protein, it doesn't seem to matter. I remember when Roy Jones, one of the greatest boxers in history, played a professional basketball game and fought a title fight all within 24 hours. And, all he had to eat during that period of time were gummy worms and a cup of coffee.

When I played rugby in college, we had a national championship winning team filled with phenomenal European players who lived on what we called the 3 Cs: Cigarettes, caffeine and calories, not to mention plenty of Coca-Cola and Coors. Despite their diet and smoke inhalation, they were incredible athletes and could run hard for an 80-minute game.

The point here is our beliefs about the absolutes of nutrition and performance are quite a bit skewed, as we get a lot of our advice today from athletes who endorse certain foods and supplements or companies that claim to have seen results while using their products on Olympians or pros. Yet, the athletes don't really use or, in some cases, need them.

Would and do these gifted athletes perform significantly better when eating correctly? Of course they do, particularly as they age or to prevent or recover from injuries.

High-sugar, high-refined carb dieting makes you more prone to muscle and joint deterioration and injury. Who knows how many careers have been cut short due to diminishing skills or injuries? Careers that could have been lengthened through the right nutrition. More so, who knows how many unknowns could have been greats if they just knew what to put in their mouths ...

Energy Foods: The Big Lie

Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on energy drinks and energy bars each year. Bar and drink makers add dozens of elements to these products, including vitamins, minerals, herbs and whey. However, the active ingredients usually come down to two simple substances: Sugar and caffeine.

Although, when used properly, there are some benefits for intense, high-level training athletes, for most normal people, the vast majority of these energy drinks, bars, and powders only add hazardous toxins, chemicals and useless calories to their diet.

They call them "energy" bars or "energy" drinks. However, in the long run, sugar and caffeine do just the opposite. Sugar acts like an H-bomb on your system. There's a quick explosion of energy followed by a plummeting disaster, as your pancreas and other glands do all they can to balance out the toxic stimulation to blood sugar.

Their net worth, however, equals significantly diminished energy, and not more. Additionally, any kinesiologist or chiropractor will show you how sugar dramatically reduces strength.

While caffeine will not create the immediate decline in energy that sugar will, when used on a regular basis it's ultimately "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Unlike sugar, caffeine can be an effective performance supplement.

It's even banned by the Olympics when found in excessive levels in the bloodstream. On the contrary, when used on a regular basis it will cause a burning out of the glandular system resulting in mean energy levels below normal. Eventually, you need a cup of coffee just to get back to tired.

Walk into your local health club and you'll see dozens of people sipping some red-, purple- or blue-colored drink that contains unsafe chemicals like sugar (or any one of its other names, like glucose or corn syrup) or caffeine (or its herbal equal, guarana). And that doesn't include many containing hazardous artificial sugars like Splenda (sucralose) or Nutrasweet (aspartame). No wonder the vast majority of popular "energy" and "power" drinks leave you with less energy and depleted power.

While athletes that train at high levels may need to replace their depleted carbohydrates with sugar immediately following a workout or game, if someone's training at a more moderate level, or not at all, these extra sugars just turn to fat, a tired pancreas and worn out adrenal glands.

It's also important to replace the water you lose when you exercise. Caffeine acts like a diuretic, actually causing you to lose even more water.

Really Simple Energy Rules

Energy doesn't come from sugar, particularly if it's going to be a long game, match or day. Taking in simple carbs (sugar, corn syrup, honey, cane sugar, white flour like pasta, or white-ish flour like wheat bread) before an event will cause a quick spike in blood sugar followed by a fall. Moreover, simple carbs and excess complex carbs will cause sluggishness and hamper performance.

If you want to create energy naturally, here are five simple rules to follow:

1. Just before a game or hard workout, eat some complex/simple carbs like fruits, including apples, plums, pears, citrus fruit (not juice) and berries. They're great right before a game or workout as they give you a small spike without the massive plummet.

2. Two to three hours before a game or hard workout, complex carbs, fats and small amount of protein will do the trick. Sweet potatoes, brown rice, olive oil, almond butter, flax oil, walnuts, almonds and eggs are all easy to digest and should give you more sustained energy for the day.

(With all pre-game, and even "night before," game and workout foods, the trick is to look for things that will give you energy and sit well while you play. This combination will be different for everyone, however.)

3. During a game or hard workout and immediately afterward, in terms of simple carbs, sports drinks and sports bars containing sugary carbs could replace all those lost carbs immediately following exertion. But, weigh your options carefully as you're still using brands containing chemicals, colorings and preservatives that aren't good for you at all. Instead, sweeteners like honey, maple, cane or brown rice syrup are more natural and can be found in many healthier bars and powders.

4. After the game or workout is long done, your body is nitrogen-poor and your muscles have been broken down. That's why you need amino acids from animal proteins like chicken, fish, beef and eggs as well as complex carbohydrates (sweet potatoes or brown rice).

5. Although many experts have advised athletes to load up on carbs before a long-distance event, fact is, burning sugar is not what happens over long distances. After a short period of time, particularly at slower paces, the body is burning fats.

Therefore, rather than loading up on carbs, more long distance runners are loading up on fats and small amounts of proteins prior to racing, with no more carbs than the body can easily store anyway. Toward the end of extremely long races, only then may you find it necessary to replace those carbs with a glucose drink or gel.

Dr. Ben Lerner, along with Dr. Greg Loman, owns Teach The World About Chiropractic, a Chiropractic training company. They have helped build the largest spinal correction clinics in the history of Chiropractic.

source: mercola.com

Why DId My Cholesterol Go Up After Going Primal/Paleo?

Why Did My Cholesterol Go Up After Going Primal?

While the majority of people who go Primal see their blood lipids improve, a significant minority do not in the short term. They see LDL cholesterol skyrocket, or their total cholesterol increase, and sometimes triglycerides even mysteriously elevate despite a low-carb intake.

What’s going on here? Should you go on statins? Should you add grains back in? Should you start jogging for a couple hours every night? Should you even worry about it?

Before you freak out, let’s go over a couple things:

Even though it may be sufficient to get your doctor to write a statin prescription, keep in mind that a total cholesterol level of between 200 and 240 is associated with the lowest risk of all-cause mortality (PDF).

If it’s LDL you’re worried about, total particle count is the thing to watch. Standard lipid panels, including LDL-C (amount of cholesterol inside the particles) and total cholesterol, can certainly give you an idea of your particle count, but you might want to read up on advanced lipid tests, too, if you’re not satisfied. Confirm that your “elevated cholesterol” is actually an issue.

That said, seeing a host of beyond-end-range numbers on your lipid test can be scary. It can also be confusing, especially if everything else appears to be going so well for you health-wise. So today, I’m going to explore a few of the reasons why your cholesterol might have gone up after going Primal. Some reasons will quell your fears, while some may provide avenues for further experimentation. At any rate, you’ll learn something.

You’re losing weight.

Going Primal often means weight loss. This is a good thing, as excess body fat is unhealthy. We want to increase lean mass while decreasing fat mass. Usually, such weight loss leads to improvements in lipid numbers. If you get your cholesterol checked when you’re fifty pounds overweight, lose it all, and check it again once your weight stabilizes, your numbers will likely have improved. That’s what the studies tend to suggest.

When you lose weight the good way – by burning body fat rather than lean mass – you are consuming pure animal fat. Say you’re dropping a pound of body fat every four days or so – that’s releasing a stream of 3500 calories-worth of animal fat into your blood stream as triglycerides and free fatty acids. If you take a snapshot of your lipids in the midst of this rapid weight loss, there’s a chance that your numbers will look off. Triglycerides in particular may be up, way up (since your blood is now full of them, newly liberated from adipose tissue).

Solution: Recheck once your weight has stabilized.

You’re deficient in some key micronutrients.

Yeah, the food we get to eat on Primal is delicious and incredibly nutritious, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely immune to nutritional deficiencies, especially considering a lot of the food we stopped eating – grain products like breakfast cereal and granola bars, and processed foods of all kinds – were our most reliable sources of vitamins and minerals thanks to the wonders of fortification.

A few of the most common include:

• Iodine  - Iodine is required for production of thyroid hormone, and too large a reduction in thyroid activity can lower the expression of LDL receptors. Without enough LDL receptors, LDL doesn’t get cleared from the blood. Primal eaters who give up iodized salt for sea salt without making up the difference with adequate seaweed and seafood may be missing out on iodine (eating tons of goitrogenic cruciferous veggies at the same time might compound the problem).
• Copper – Copper deficiency is associated with elevated levels of LDL, as well as increased particle number. Both oysters and ruminant liver are excellent sources of copper. You eating your offal and shellfish?
• Selenium – Selenium deficiency is associated with reduced LDL receptor activity (and subsequent elevated LDL levels). Salmon, kidneys, and brazil nuts are great sources of selenium.

Check out my post on micronutrient deficiencies (plus this one) to see what else you might be missing.

Solution: Eat some liver, shellfish, seaweed, salmon, brazil nuts, and check your diet against a nutritional database for a couple weeks to see if you’re hitting all your targets.

You’re grazing all day.

People coming from a standard Westernized diet are usually ravenously hungry at all times. They have trouble going several hours between meals. And then they switch to Primal eating, their hunger issues improve, but the snacking remains. It’s tough to beat. After all, we live in a culture of snacking (those of us in the US, at least). If you work in an office, snacks abound. Donuts are always being trotted in and paraded about. Jars of candy beans and M&Ms adorn every second desk. People keep “snack stashes” in their desk drawers.

And so we snack. Instead of giving our bodies and digestive systems a break, we remain in “fed” mode. As soon as our bodies start to get a handle on the nutrition we’ve recently ingested, we send in some more – just as our guts were about to crack a beer and take a load off. Admittedly, I don’t have any studies to reference, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that staying in the fed state hampers our ability to utilize the fatty acids in our blood (since there’s a constant influx of nutrients, why bother burning what we have?), and thus might cause elevated cholesterol.

I’m not saying you have to fast, because you don’t. But I would caution people against grazing – against always having something on hand to absentmindedly munch on, against gallivanting around with a sackful of salted nuts on your belt, against eating 6-12 small “meals” per day so as to avoid imminent muscle catabolism. Just eat real meals, substantial plates of food that keep you sated for four to five hours a pop.

Solution: Eat real meals.

Your activity levels don’t match your carb intake.

While I’m a proponent of tailoring your workouts so that you don’t require a high-carb diet, many people enjoy maintaining a high level of sustained intensity in their workouts. That’s cool. I get it. Just don’t think you can stay very low carb and enjoy good health while maintaining high-intensity endurance or metcon training on a daily basis.

What’s this have to do with cholesterol? Well, if you’re hitting the metcons regularly without the necessary glucose infusions, your body conserves what glucose is available. We need some glucose for brain function (ketones and other sources can handle a lot of our brain’s needs, but not all of it), so in order to preserve what little glucose is available, T3 thyroid hormone is reduced. Normally, T3 increases glucose utilization, but when the body doesn’t have enough due to mismatched exercise output and carb input, T3 must drop to conserve glucose. Unfortunately, this lowered T3 can lead to lowered LDL receptor activity, which leads to increased lipid levels.

Solution: Align your activity levels with your carb intake.

You’re still not moving frequently at a slow pace.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: low level aerobic activity in the form of walking, hiking, easy cycling, or even light rowing is absolutely essential. There’s a reason it forms the base of my Primal Blueprint Fitness pyramid. When you go for a good-sized walk, you’re not burning calories. You’re not blasting your abz, bunz, and gunz. You’re not vomiting on yourself from overexertion. It’s not exciting. It won’t make a good Youtube video set to Linkin Park. But what you will be doing is utilizing those free fatty acids that might be throwing off your lipid panels.

In one study, patients who walked briskly were far less reliant on cholesterol, blood pressure, and diabetes medications. Those who took the longest walks at the briskest pace were the least likely to have LDL cholesterol high enough to warrant statins. In another, brisk walking was enough to reduce triglycerides and LDL particle count in overweight women.

Lifting heavy things and sprinting once in awhile are excellent acute stressors that elicit fantastic health and performance benefits, but constant low-level movement is the foundation of it all, especially if you’re eating more fat and trying to become a true fat-burning beast.

Solution: Do I even have to say? This isn’t optional. Go for a walk!

You’re not lifting heavy things.

Cholesterol isn’t out to get us, you know. We don’t manufacture the stuff to commit slow suicide. It actually serves a purpose in our bodies. From cholesterol, we produce steroid hormones, sex hormones, and make vitamin D (with a little help from the sun, of course). With cholesterol, lipid particles transport nutrients and antioxidants to various parts of the body. Research shows that, following weight lifting, we also use cholesterol to repair and rebuild muscles.

In fact, acute bouts of resistance training can cause large reductions in blood lipids. One study found that total cholesterol was reduced up to 48 hours after a single weight training session. Another (PDF) found that the cholesterol reduction persisted at 72 hours post workout. Interestingly, the drop in cholesterol in both studies accompanied a rise in creatine kinase, an indirect marker of the degree of muscle damage caused by strength training. The fact that the effects persist for days after a single bout of weight training suggests that regularly lifting heavy things can effectively manage your cholesterol.

Eating fat can increase cholesterol. Not in everyone, not even in most, but enough people see a (usually neutral) increase in cholesterol when they start eating more fat. That’s all well and good as long as you make use of it. Lifting heavy things, whether it’s your own bodyweight, someone else’s, a barbell, a log, or a machine, breaks down and then repairs muscle. Cholesterol is required to repair muscle, to make it stronger. To make you stronger. If you squander the opportunity to use all that cholesterol by failing to lift anything heavy, don’t be surprised if things get a little screwy with your blood lipids.

Solution: Lift heavy things at least twice a week.

Notice a common thread? Most of these reasons for elevated cholesterol are easily testable. And if you can test them, you can probably find a solution. Think back to the recent series on self-experimentation if you need some pointers.

That’s what I’ve got. What about you? Has your cholesterol increased since going Primal? Do any of these sound familiar? If so, how are you going to approach the issue – if at all? Or, if something else was causing your increase, tell us how you fixed it. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-did-my-cholesterol-go-up-after-going-primal/#ixzz1ywmlPJdK