Finding My "Metabolic Zero"

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a former Marine.  Now that I'm almost 10 years removed from the Corps, for many it's kind of hard to imagine that I was ever a Marine, but however short my stint was, I am first and foremost USMC trained.

 

One of the things I remember from USMC boot camp was "grass week."  One of the mottos of the Corps is, "every Marine is a rifleman," and all Marines are indoctrinated into this motto with a week's worth of "snapping in" drills and classroom sessions on rifleman basics.  During this week, recruits learn how to BZO, or "battle zero" their rifles, which involves adjusting the windage and elevations settings on the M-16 so that the round will hit dead-center of the target.

This concept of zeroing is not something we do often, but it's not unique to marksmanship either.  One of the more recent things I found myself zeroing is my food scale.  It's convenient to place a bowl or a plate on a scale and then zero the scale so that the display only show the weight of the food that's added.  Recently I've been pursuing the zeroing of something else--my metabolic rate.

When I started P90X in April, I did what most people do--I consulted the Nutrition Guide to determine how much I should be eating to get the most from the program.  According to the number crunching, I was a "Level 2" eater, which put me at 2400 calories/day.  As I continued on in the program, I discovered myfitnesspal.com (MFP), which assessed me at some other caloric deficit.  I think it had me at 1800 cal/day, which became reasonable because I could eat more the harder I worked out.  I kept up this sort of dieting for months, so long that I lost sight of exactly what my RMR (resting metabolic rate) is.  I also realized that eating at a deficit for a significant period of time, while good for weight loss, is actually not optimal for long-term health.  So with this last round of P90X, I decided that I needed to determine exactly what my RMR is and learn to eat at that level.

I've been progressively increasing my daily caloric intake for weeks.  Starting at around 2000 cal/day, I've been increasing my caloric intake by about 250 cal/day every two weeks, and I feel that I've found my metabolic zero, that is the caloric intake that matches my daily burn, at around 2750 cal/day on exercise days.  Since I exercise six days per week, I haven't gone so far as to try to figure out my metabolic zero on non-workout days, but I figure it's somewhere around 2250-2500.  But when you're working out six days a week, it doesn't really matter if you lower your caloric intake on the non-workout day.  As long as you don't increase your caloric intake on your rest day, you'll likely be fine.  Still, it's an imperfect estimation, and I was hoping for something a little more concrete.

Cue the BodyMedia FIT Core (pictured above).  The BMF Core is this really cool device that measures skin temperature, heat flux, galvanic skin resistance (perspiration), and motion via 3-axis accelerometer.  The result is that you get info on how many calories you actually burn in a given day, how many steps you take per day, sleep information, and more.  You can use the BodyMedia website to track your caloric intake if you want, but I'm not using that feature.  I know roughly how many calories I consume per day; what I don't know is how many I burn.  The Calories Burned portion is pretty cool because it shows you a bar graphic of the day, with cal/min on the y-axis and time of day on the x-axis.  You can adjust a slider to whatever window size you want for that day to see how many calories you burned during a specific time frame, which is great for seeing how many calories you burned, say, during a workout.  Now, I'm not sure how accurate the data is, since it told me that I burned 431 calories during my Insanity Asylum Game Day & Overtime workout yesterday, which seems low to me, but I was workout out extremely early and I had to shorten my workout, so it could be pretty close.

Now, the stated accuracy is 10%.  This seems like a significant amount, since 10% of 2750 cal/day is 275--that's a 550 calorie window of accuracy!  However, one thing I've learned about statistics like this is that the error percentage should be between devices, so my device could be within 10% of what a different device would read given the same measurements.  Furthermore, a 10% error is better than the errors associated with various metabolic equations with the added benefit that baseline estimation is derived from sensor data than from height, weight, age, etc.

I think that the BMF Core will do for metabolic estimation what heart rate monitors do for exercise--it will give the user value data based on real-world inputs.  All things considered, I expect that the BMF Core will go a long way in helping me to determine my unique metabolic rate, and armed with that data, 2012 should be a very successful year!

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Shakeology Cleanse, Day 3

So the first and most obvious downside to finishing the cleanse on the last day of the work week--you're not motivated to do a write-up of it on the weekend!  I've gotta get my thoughts down before I forget the experience though, so here goes.

The hunger on Day 3 was comparable to Day 2, but for whatever reason I wasn't as hungry when I woke up the third day than I was the second.  Sticking to the diet for the third day wasn't significantly challenging, but the guys at work don't offer the best social support.  They opened a box of Girl Scout cookies and insisted that I eat some.  I left the office for a little bit only to find that they saved one for me.  I tucked it away in my desk.  I recognize that one cookie wouldn't make that much of a difference, but that's not the point.  The point is that I can always find a way to justify the things that are easy or instantly gratifying.  Finding reasons to do the hard thing and sticking to one's commitment is the defining characteristic of success.

However, I agreed to meet up with some of the fellas from the office in the evening to say goodbye to our outgoing boss.  Everyone had beers and bar snacks, so I thought a fruit juice would be an acceptable compromise since fruit is not entirely off-limits during the cleanse.  All-in-all, I would say that I had a successful three days.

Now, there is an upside to waiting a few days to write about the last day.  Now I get to write about my post-cleanse experience.  Unfortunately this wasn't as good.

Friday I kept my diet somewhat under control...until dinner.  I really didn't go ridiculously overboard with like a whole pizza and a pint of ice cream or anything, but I did have 1 cup of chicken tikka masala over 2 cups of basmati rice with a side of Na'an bread.  Not the worst possible meal, but certainly not the healthiest way I could have ended the day.  My immediate post-cleanse weight was 171.x, but my weigh-in following my Friday meals jumped back to 174.x.  I did pretty good Saturday too, but I did treat myself to some hot-fresh-now Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts, which I don't get to do very often.  Unfortunately as of Sunday morning's weigh-in, I'm back to my pre-cleanse weight.

So here are my take-aways from this round of the Shakeology 3-Day Cleanse:
--The "cleanse" is really more of a fast, which I will call it from now on.  I didn't have any more frequent trips to the bathroom, nor do I feel any differently than before starting the regimen.
--Speaking of which, I'm dealing with a huge bout of constipation now.  I can't say for sure it's due to the fast or if the fast was contributing to the condition in any way, but no matter how you look at it, the Shakeology fast didn't do me any favors.  One of the alleged benefits of Shakeology in general is that it's supposed to help keep you regular.  In all fairness I understand that fasts in general tend to result in some form of constipation, and suffice it to say that a Shakeology fast seems to be no different.
--The fast is significantly more beneficial the more weight you have to lose.  This might seem like a no-brainer, but I can now confirm it with my own experience.  Last time I started the cleanse at 181.x, got down to around 175, and the subsequent return to normal eating didn't send me right back to my original weight.  That was not my experience this time around.  True, I could have controlled my diet restoration a little more tightly, but I don't assess that I did anything significantly different from the last time I did the cleanse.
--The Shakeology fast doesn't seem to be significantly different from other fasting protocols, or from consistently healthy eating.  I didn't seem to lose significantly more weight from one day to the next on this fast compared from the 24 hour weekend fasts I've done, and the rate of weight loss was only moderately more noticeable than when I'm eating a normal, healthy diet.

Conclusion:  The Shakeology 3-day fast can be an effective tool for enhancing weight loss, especially during an initial weight-loss phase where someone is achieving new standards in body comp.  It is less effective in people who are otherwise eating healthy and are already close to their body comp goals.  Additionally, the Shakeology fast is reasonable to maintain in terms of dealing with hunger; however, recognize that there is nothing significantly different or uniquely beneficial to doing a Shakeology fast vice other fasting protocols.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this fast, fasting protocols, or any other questions about nutrition.

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Shakeology Cleanse, Day 2

Ugh...dealing with the hunger today was definitely a little more difficult.  I made some adjustments from yesterday.  I saved my first shake until 8a so that I could have my last meal at 8p.  I made more ice for today so that I could bulk up each shake a little, but the hunger was still gnawing at me.  It wasn't unbearable, but it was maybe a 3 on a 5-point scale and fairly constant.  When I did have a shake, it would subside the hunger for 45 min to an hour, but that was about it.


I had to leave the office today for lunch because two guys brought back A&W.  One guy had chicken strips, and the other guy...well, I don't know because I didn't stay long enough to find out.  It didn't help that there was absolutely NOTHING to do today in the office.  Boredom encourages snacking, which I think everyone knows.  I got a workout in around 2p, so that kept me at least a little distracted.

But you know what?  My morning weigh-in was 173.3 lbs.  I may or may not get below the 170 threshold this time around, and even if I do I'd be surprised if I kept it off.  After all, I know that some of this weight is due to water weight that comes along with carb restriction.  I know that how I come off of this regimen will be critical, so my weekend waffles will have to wait at the very least until Saturday.  Friday has got to be a PN compliant day.  That is if I can make it to Friday!

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Shakeology Cleanse, Day 1

So I've decided to do the Shakeology 3-day cleanse...again.  This round was partly planned yet partly spontaneous.  I planned at the outset of this round of P90X to do a Shakeology cleanse between Phases 2 and 3, but when I finally made it to the Phase 2 recovery week, I was no longer sure.  Last time I did the cleanse I was in the low 180s and used the cleanse to effectively get myself below the 180# threshold, and it worked; I haven't been back to 180 since.  However, this time around I'm in the mid 170s and am still gradually losing weight on my diet, so I'm concerned that a cleanse now won't be as worthwhile.

So at the beginning of the week I was no longer sure that I was going to do a cleanse like I had planned, and that's where the spontaneous part comes into play.  I got on the scale this morning and weighed in at 174.x pounds, down from 176.x yesterday, and decided to go for it.  If my weight is on a downward trend, then now is the perfect time to ride that trend out.  Plus starting now gives me two days over the weekend to recover to more normal eating habits.  I learned last time that going straight off of the cleanse into Phase 3 is not a good idea.

At any rate, I'm 3 shakes down into Day 1 of the cleanse, and so far so good.  It's important when doing this regimen to effectively employ your meal timing.  After all, you only get four meals a day (three shakes and a salad), so the spacing of those meals becomes important.  For some reason I wasn't planning properly and was somehow adding in an extra meal.  It wasn't until I put it on paper that I realized what my meal timing needed to be: 7a, 11a, 3p, and 7p.  I'll get to eat my salad in a little less than two hours now, and I've got to say that I'm looking forward to eating some solid food.  I'm also curious to see how satiated that salad will leave me between 7p and when I go to bed three hours later.

I'm not feeling particularly hungry, but the thought of not being able to eat again till 7p is more annoying than anything.  For someone who has been fasting every weekend for 24h, this is not too bad, but again, it's the thought that I "can't" eat something that bothers me the most.  Not that it's hugely different from when I'm eating normally; after all, when I eat at 1p I tell myself I can't eat again until 5p.  Then again, I'm typically not hungry until 5p when eating normally.

I'm modifying from the strictest sense of the cleanse a little--I'm mixing my Shakeology with 1 cup of low-fat milk.  It ups the calorie content a little (though I'm still below 1200 cal/day), but more importantly, it ups the protein content of each meal to almost 30g.  One of the things I want to make sure of is that I don't neglect my daily protein needs.

Other than that, I was concerned about how low my carb intake would be every day--119 g/day.  It's really not that far off from the 130 g/day minimum recommended by the American Dietetic Association, but such a low carb intake might explain why I was feeling the way I was when I did this the first time.

Well, I'll log in tomorrow and write about my Day 2 experience, but so far so good!

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13 seconds away from a free lunch...with a three-star admiral!

There I am, lap two around the base, rounding the final bend toward the finish line when the monitor calls out

"Nine minutes!!!"

I can see the finish line in the distance.  If I can get there in 20 seconds, I will have maxed the PRT...a feat that I have never accomplished.  Granted, the standards are lower now in my old age; I only have to do 90-something crunches, 80 push-ups, and run a mile-and-a-half in 9:20 seconds, but I'm flying.  Twenty seconds away.  I can make that!

"Nine thirty-one.  Nine thirty-two.  Nine thirty-three!  Way to go!!!"

"Damn it!!!!!"

Okay, so I'm not all that hot and bothered about not having the Admiral pick up my lunch.  It's just that I've never been 13 seconds away from maxing the PRT.  However, putting it all into perspective, last time I ran the PRT was April 19th.  I think I was one month into my first round of P90X at the time, weighed 187 lbs, and scored an overall "Excellent High," doing 101 crunches, 66 push-ups, and a mile-and-a-half time that was over 10 minutes.  In six months of doing P90X and Insanity, I managed to max both push-ups and crunches and shaved easily over 30 seconds off of my run!  I might not be rocking a six-pack yet, but I can honestly say that between P90X, Insanity, and Precision Nutrition, I am in the best shape of my life!

(Oh, and since I ran the make-up PRT, I was running with a very small group of like 6 or so people.  So, yeah, I got the #1 card on the run.  I've never taken first place on the run before either!)

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Done--PN Certified!!!

I realize that it has been forever since I've written anything, but hey!  We all get busy, right?  Well, one of the things that has been keeping me busy is Precision Nutrition Level 1 certification, and I've gotta say that I'm glad to be done!

I haven't written about it yet, but Precision Nutrition has significantly impacted my life ever since I learned about it back in the middle of the year.  I learned about it as I was researching recovery drinks for the workout group I was involved with during my first round of P90X, and I just got sucked into the articles.  The PN website has a wealth of absolutely free articles that address the gamut of health and fitness.  In fact, you could probably learn just about everything there is to know about the PN system for free just by reading all of the articles.  But that would take forever, and I wanted a more concise and structured presentation of the fundamentals of the system, so I ordered the Precision Nutrition System, and down the rabbit hole I went.


I've got to be honest, I was skeptical at first.  The product information website did that whole "flood the potential customer with information" thing that I've seen in other, less reputable products.  The price offer even does that "display the retail price and markdown" thing and the "post the availability status" thing to generate a sense of limited availability.  I knew that what I read online was quality material, and the materials that were advertised to come with the system seemed worthwhile, but I remember being a little put-off by the presentation of the system.  Still, I figured that I've made $100 mistakes before, and while this could have been another, it turned out to be well worth it.

There are a number of successful nutritional models and programs out there, of which PN is just one of them.  However, the system focuses on eating healthy, whole foods and minimizing supplements.  It teaches healthy eating habits over systems and points and really codifies what good nutrition is in a sea full of conflicting guidance.  As far as I can tell, Precision Nutrition is perhaps the most comprehensive and practical nutrition system out there, and I say that from experience.  Thanks to Precision Nutrition, I've improved my diet, streamlined my supplementation, and have maintained my weight in the mid-170s ever since finishing my first round of P90X four months ago.

With a program as amazing as Precision Nutrition, naturally I wanted to share what I've learned with others.  There was only one problem: PN teaches you the foundation of good nutrition and how to customize your nutrition if you so desire, but the system is not really geared toward teaching others.  Sure, I could tell people what the system says, but then I'm giving nutritional advice, and I didn't exactly feel qualified to do that.  But then I saw that PN would be offering a certification course toward the end of this year.  The way I saw it was pretty simple: the PN system teaches you how to eat better, and PN certification would teach me how to teach others.

The program was VERY comprehensive.  The text was seventeen chapters long, half of which was devoted to biological function and the other half to PN coaching.  I learned more than I ever though I would about mitochondrial function, Krebs Cycle, transport proteins, and metabolic pathways.  By the time I got through all of the material, I felt ready to take the exam.  After years of short-answer exams, I figured a 100 question multiple-guess exam would be cake.  When the very first question asked me to identify which chemical was "cardioprotective," I knew I was wrong to underestimate the exam.  They weren't kidding when they said that this would be equivalent to a masters course in sports nutrition!

But all that's behind me now, and I have the "omini-domini" from Precision Nutrition to go forth and teach.  I plan to offer my services to any of my customers on TeamBeachbody.  And if anyone reading this wants my help to improve their overall nutrition, let me know.  I'm sure we can work something out!

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Shakeology: Just How Healthy Is "The Healthiest Meal Of The Day"?

I had to think really hard about whether or not I wanted to write this article.  After all, I've been drinking Shakeology almost daily for the last three months and can't argue that it has helped me achieve my health and fitness goals.  But little by little thoughts started to creep up causing me to question why I'm drinking Shakeology.  It got to the point where I could no longer ignore my curiousity, so I dug.

What first got me doubting my cornerstone of health was a comment on the Team Beachbody message boards.  At one point, while doing P90X, the discussion turned to Michael Pollan's Food Rules--a book of concise rules that anyone could easily understand and follow to improve one's diet.  One of the food rules is "don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."  As much as I love Shakeology, I'd have to admit that it would be difficult to explain to great-grandma the concept of a meal in a glass.

And then I started on the Precision Nutrition (PN) system.  In it I learned a number "habits" to develop to improve my diet as well as a number of practical techniques to make improvement a reality.  Almost immediately I found myself cooking my own meals from whole foods and eating vegetiables with every meal.  No doubt my diet was improving.  Along those lines, the PN system is very conservative in it's recommendation of supplements; they don't even recommend a multivitamin!  The concept is exceedingly simple--your food choices should be the primary source of your nutrition, and you should only supplement for very specific reasons.  Sadly, there's not a whole lot of room for Shakeology in that plan.

But PN is not without supplement recommendations entirely.  It does recommend a greens supplement.  Well, hey!  Shakeology has a "phytonutrient super-green blend."  Maybe that was the key to keeping Shakeology in my diet.  Well, before I could hit the "I Believe" button, I had to see how it stacked up compared to other greens supplements.  After all, Shakeology's super-green blend is only a portion of it's overall ingredient list, which numbers over 40 discrete items.  Is there enough greens in Shakeology to make it an effective greens supplement?

It turns out, no, not so much.  No doubt, Shakeology contains a number of phenominal and exotic ingredients that you're probably only going to get from Shakeology.  However, 1000 milligrams of lettuce, tomato, spinach, chick pea, black olive, onion, and carrot powder does not a salad make.

I looked at each individual ingredient in Shakeology's super-green blend to see how much of each ingredient you would have to consume in order to achieve any useful benefit.  While some of the ingredients in the super-green blend have no minimum dosing recommendations or established values, like blue-green algae, of all the supplements I could find dosages for, you would have to consume a minimum of nearly 36.5 grams/day to receive the benefits of all the ingredients contained in the super-green blend; the blend in Shakeology totals 1.8 grams.  Chlorella alone has a recommended minimum dose of 5 grams/day for maintenance, according to chlorellafactor.com.  While Shakeology contains a number of potent ingredients, you could easily make an argument that it doesn't contain enough of them to offer any real benefit.

If the low levels of any particular ingredient are cause to question the health benefits of Shakeology, then there needs to be something else to support the health claims.  Perhaps there's some sort of synergy in all of the ingredients that results in health benefits unique to Shakeology.  While Shakeology has a slew of positive customer reviews and claims the support of no less than 100 doctors, unfortunately it is lacking in supporting research.  The only study that was conducted was an uncredited, independent 90-day study.  The study revealed a number of health benefits, to include lower total cholesterol and LDL levels, but there are products out there that have more compelling research backing them.  Though it has positive implications, one study of unknown origin can hardly be considered conclusive.

What then, does that mean Shakeology is bunk and is not worth drinking?  Not necessarily.  Comparing Shakeology's micronutrient content to other greens supplements, Shakeology is comparable if not better in certain categories.  Shakology does make for a tasty and filling shake, so from a satiability and sustainability standpoint, Shakeology works very well.  Shakeology is low on the glycemic index and is gluten free, which allows people with gluten sensitivities to have a healthy meal that is easy to prepare.  And having personally done the Shakeology 3-Day Cleanse with great results, I can absolutely say that Shakeology does have its merit.

So what's the bottom line?  My current position on Shakeology is that it has its place and will remain in my nutritional arsenal, though I will not be using it every day once my 30 day supplies run out.  The numbers don't lie, and Shakeology's macro and micronutrient content make it a worthy contender as a meal replacement, probably the best there is.  I think Shakeology is most beneficial for those with average diets, and by "average" I mean that they've done nothing, or little to improve it.  If you're eating a modest breakfast like cereal or oatmeal or (gulp) fast food breakfast sandwiches/bagles/donuts, a sandwich for lunch, a microwave dinner, and granola bars for snacks like I was, then Shakeology is probably for you.  If, however, you have taken significant steps toward improving your diet, such as eating vegetables and lean protein with every meal and prepare your own meals using whole ingredients, then Shakeology might be a little overkill.

I tend to travel a lot, and there's no doubt that my nutrition suffers when I travel.  So I will keep a supply of individual travel packs on hand for when I travel so that I can guarantee that I have at least one decent, nutritious meal when I'm unable to prepare my own meals.  That's how I intend to use Shakeology from now on.  You'll have to decide for yourself if Shakeology fits your lifestyle and where.  And if you need help with that, feel free to contact me.  I'll be glad to help you determine if Shakeology is for you!

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