Fitness Trackers: Number One Fitness Trend

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The American College of Sports Medicine just released the list of top fitness trends for 2019. Top of the list is fitness trackers; second and third are group exercise and high intensity interval training. Fitness trackers taking the top spot surprised me because they’re not an exercise, they’re a tool to track exercise. But if they can help people keep exercising, I’m all for it.

What I think is really beneficial is the tracking itself. Some trackers are very sophisticated; they will include heart rate and even blood pressure. You can sync some with a scale or enter your body weight. Some track distance with GPS if you have an outdoor activity. Many will also track calories if you enter the food data. You can get readouts that are printable if you sync the device with your computer. That’s a great way to track patterns—if you take a look at the data. If you have one and use it, it’s a great tool to keep you on track.

When it comes to having energy when you need it, a fitness tracker can provide valuable information. I’ll cover how you can use any type of tracker to help you have energy exactly when you need it in this Sunday’s 9th Annual Super Bowl Webinar.

        Dr. Chet

Reference: ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal: doi: 10.1249/FIT.0000000000000438

G.O.A.T.

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The New England Patriots are playing in the Super Bowl. Again. They’re playing the Los Angeles Rams this time. There will be thousands of pages written about the game. Countless commentaries in all forms of media as well. Even though I’m a Buffalo Bills fan, I have to give credit to the Patriots. They’re the greatest of all time to date: GOAT. I qualify it only because there’s always the possibility another team will supersede their accomplishments. But it’s not likely.

I believe the reason they have been so successful is their consistency. Players have come and gone. Training techniques change as do offensive and defensive schemes. But they’ve been consistent in using the season to solidify their approach in preparation for the play-offs. In other words, they have trained to peak at exactly the right time year after year. They train to win the close games. They establish the mental and physical wherewithal to overcome any circumstance. The lesson is that every year the challenges will be different but the approach is consistent.

I make no predictions for the game but I can predict this: you can be your personal GOAT in health and other areas of your life, throughout this year or years to come. You just have to be consistent in your approach.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Is Consistency the Key to Health?

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As the new year progresses and you work toward your health goals, one thing that will help you just about more then anything else is being consistent in your effort. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But we have a ranking system in our heads of how we perceive the importance of everything we’re doing, and sometimes health habits don’t rank very high.

For example, measuring food. When we get in a hurry, we may not take the time to weigh or measure our portions. We may eyeball it. I don’t see a problem with extra vegetables, but when it comes to high-fat or calorie-dense foods such as salad dressings or nuts or even pasta, it’s important, especially in the beginning. Accept that you’re not good at estimating yet and for a while, you must measure every time.

The same is true for stretching. If we get busy, we may not always take the few minutes to stretch our legs before walking, or our shoulders to improve posture. We know how good it feels when we do it but when we’re rushed, we may skip it. The older we get, the more important stretching becomes.

Do you ever go to bed without brushing your teeth? Do you skip your meds because you’re in a rush? I’ll bet 99% of us always brush and always take our meds. Spend some time thinking about why that is and how you can make your hit-or-miss health habits into never-miss habits.

We could apply this to any action connected to improving our health. There will be times when we have to make that decision and go with that ranking system in our head. Just get back to it later in the day or as soon as you can. Your health is the result of what you consistently do to get healthy. It all depends on: What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Parachute or Backpack?

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You’re sitting on a plane. The person next to you says he’s conducting a study about parachute safety and asks if you would be willing to be randomly assigned to one of two groups: jumping out of the plane with a parachute or with an empty backpack at its current altitude and speed.

Yes, this is a real study. The researchers included both commercial and private aircraft. The researchers were able to enroll 23 subjects in the study after screening 92 people; 69 people were unwilling to participate or were otherwise excluded from the study. After randomization, the experiment was conducted in two locations in the U.S.; all subjects completed the study. The results indicated that no subject from either group was injured or killed. There were no differences between the groups using the backpack or the parachute.

What?

How is that possible? The subjects who were asked on commercial aircraft at 450 mph and 30,000 feet would not volunteer (and a couple who did were excluded due to mental health concerns.) Those who were asked on a stationary private aircraft at zero altitude and zero speed all agreed to participate.

The Purpose

The researchers wanted to highlight that with or without realizing it, clinical randomized trials can be biased by the subjects who are recruited and the way they’re recruited. You can determine this only by drilling down into the research to see how subjects were selected.

Remember the study on bitter orange and caffeine? All the subjects were young and healthy. That happens often in exercise studies when testing dietary supplements, but people of all ages are active and use products designed to improve performance. Aging brings many differences in muscle mass, hormone levels, and other system changes that may reduce or exaggerate the affects of the supplement. The generalizability to other populations is often limited.

This parachute study was done tongue in cheek; no one would let people jump out of a commercial airplane with just a backpack and no human subject ethics committee would ever approve it. But subject selection can impact results and that calls into question the whole concept of doing a randomized clinical trial in the first place.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

 Reference: BMJ 2018;363:k5094 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k509.

Will Bitter Orange Help You Burn More Fat?

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When it comes to weight loss and exercise, we’re always looking for an edge such as burning more fat at rest or during exercise. Bitter orange is an herb that contains p-synephrine, a reputed booster of fat metabolism while you’re at rest. A small study tested p-synephrine, caffeine, and both together to see the effects during exercise when compared with a placebo; the researchers wanted to find which was more effective in increasing fat metabolism during exercise.

The researchers used 13 young, healthy volunteers for the experiment. They tested each of the subjects on four separate days with three to five days between tests. In random order, subjects were tested taking a placebo, three mg/kg body weight caffeine, three mg/kg body weight p-synephrine, and three mg/kg body weight of a combination caffeine and p-synephrine.

They found that caffeine raised systolic BP by eight mm Hg and diastolic mm Hg at rest; statistically different but nothing extraordinary. During the exercise phase, subjects began at 40% of max capacity and increased effort by 10% every three minutes until they reached 90% of capacity Caffeine raised fat use during exercise more than p-synephrine or the combination of caffeine and p-synephrine. Overall energy use and carbohydrate metabolism did not change.

What does that mean for us? It could mean that a strong cup of coffee or an energy drink would help us burn more fat during exercise better than some exotic plant. Why waste money buying an herbal product with long-standing safety concerns?

What we don’t know is whether that effect would remain after the body adapted to the caffeine intake. Here’s what does work: training your body to use fat as a fuel at rest and during exercise. That’s what the Optimal Performance program is all about. Check it out.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: MSSE 2018. 50(9):1899-1906.

Will Flaxseeds Help with PCOS?

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In this week’s Memos, I’ll review several studies—not large clinical trials, but studies that make you think about possibilities and direction. The first update is a case study on polycystic ovary system (PCOS) and ground flaxseed. A registered nurse attending a conference I addressed last weekend called it to my attention.

Ground flaxseed is something I recommend to men with an enlarged prostate or prostate cancer. It contains lignans that bind to testosterone. PCOS is usually found in women who are overweight and affects the ability to conceive. Abnormal hormone levels are also a characteristic of PCOS including high testosterone levels. The subject of the study had read about a clinical trial on men with prostate cancer that used ground flaxseed to reduce testosterone levels. She discussed using flaxseed to treat her PCOS. The physician tracked a number of hormone levels, and after four months, she had reduced her free testosterone levels by half and was back into the normal range for women.

Ground flaxseed might be something for women to consider if they have PCOS. It’s a great source of omega-3s and fiber as well as lignans, so ground flaxseed is good for you whether it helps PCOS or not. The critical thing is to buy the flaxseeds whole and grind them in a coffee grinder. Store them in the refrigerator and use two tablespoons per day in oatmeal, smoothies, or any other way you want to eat them. Remember, this was a case study with a single subject. It’s not certain that flaxseeds will help PCOS in every case, but it may help some. It may also help with facial hair growth and hair loss in post-menopausal women. What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Curr Top Nutraceutical Res. 2007; 5(4): 177–181.

My Weight Loss Experience and Goals for 2019

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As the author of the Optimal Performance program, I want to tell you about my experience with the Weight Loss Cycle. I had used the Basic Program to train my body to use fat as a fuel. I use the strategy in Energy on Demand when I need to be at my best whether for a time of day, an entire day, or for an event that lasts a week. I’ve used the approach in the Fat-Burning Plan for years. Here’s my experience on the Weight Loss Cycle.

My goal was to lose 16 pounds in six weeks; normally I recommend no more than two pounds a week. I determined my caloric intake based on my exercise program and activity level. When I didn’t meet my weekly weight loss goal, I decreased calories for the next week. In those six weeks, I lost 12 pounds and almost three inches off my waist. I missed my overall goal, but because I began after already losing over 30 pounds and maintaining it for a couple of years, it was unrealistic to lose the remaining weight in that short a time; don’t make the same mistake if you choose to use the Weight Loss Cycle.

The Weight Loss Cycle explains how to maintain the lost weight and what to do until you decide to do another cycle. I chose to ignore it and went back to my typical caloric intake just to see what would happen. It took eight months to gain back the 12 pounds. The reason I did that was to show that if you’re going to lose weight and maintain it, you have to defend the weight you lose by adjusting your calories to maintain that weight.

The Optimal Performance program isn’t based only on my personal experience. In addition to keeping up on the science on weight, metabolism, and physical training, I have over 30 years experience in the field of weight loss and physical performance. This isn’t one of those “do as I say but not as I do” situations; I’ve lived it, I know it’s possible, and you can do it, too.

My Goals for 2019

I’m going to limit my goals to physical changes; my blood pressure, blood lipids, and other metrics have stayed in the excellent range.

My goal is to lose 18 pounds by April 15th—15 weeks. I’m going to break it into two six-week cycles with three weeks of maintenance between cycles. The reason for that weight loss goal is that it will put my BMI into the normal-weight category. I’ve never been there in my entire adult life.

At that point, I’m going to spend the next six months adding seven pounds of muscle while losing the remaining fat around my waist to get it to an actual 34 inches. I’ll use the Fat Burning Plan in a three-day cycle every week. That takes me to October 15th.

If I can accomplish those goals, I’m going to maintain the weight, muscularity, and body fat to the end of the year.

Those are my goals and I’ll write about my progress. But while this Memo was about me, the real question is what are your weight loss or weight gain goals and how are you going to achieve them? Remember, you can use any diet you want with the Weight Loss Cycle. It’s the process that will make you successful to get to the weight you always wanted and to maintain it.

Join me for the journey.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

The Science Behind the Weight Loss Cycle

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One of the tenacious problems with weight loss is that people don’t lose all the weight they want to lose and then don’t keep it off. In trying to find out why that happens, I narrowed it to two studies that pointed the way to a solution.

The first was a study that attempted to develop an app for people to provide help exactly when they needed it. In reviewing studies to create the app, they used data from four studies on weight loss and weight gain. While they couldn’t identify the precise point for every individual, they could identify a time frame in general where people start to hit a plateau: about week 11 of any diet. That’s the point where people begin to stop paying attention to their meal plan as closely as they did when they began, and their weight gets stuck.

Another study used was the Minnesota Starvation Experiment from World War II in which lead investigator Ancel Keys severely limited calories for a group of conscientious objectors who volunteered to be starved; much of what we know about calorie restriction and helping famine victims comes from that study. It’s the only study ever in which every subject lost weight in a linear fashion. How? Researchers adjusted the subjects’ calories the following week to keep weight loss on track.

Using those two studies, I developed the Weight Loss Cycle, a way to responsibly get to your ultimate weight loss goal and then maintain it, and as far as I know, this approach is unique. What makes the Weight Loss Cycle different is that it’s not a diet with good foods and bad foods, no meal plans or recipes. You can use whatever eating plan you want; the Weight Loss Cycle shows you how to use it to achieve your goals and stay there.

If you’ve hit plateaus in the past or gained back the weight you’ve lost, the Weight Loss Cycle in the Optimal Performance program could be your key to success.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:

1. Am J Clin Nutr 2014;100:787–95.

2. Keys A. The biology of human starvation. University of Minnesota Press, 1950.

2018’s Worst Most-Read Paper

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In March of last year, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a viewpoint written by two experts in public health titled “Vitamin and Mineral Supplements. What Clinicians Need to Know”; it was one of the nutrition papers most read and most shared last year. The only problem is that clinicians really won’t find out much by reading it.

I’m going to pick one recommendation because everything after it won’t matter. The authors recommend that all clinicians recommend that patients get their nutrients from food. I absolutely agree with that. They go on to advise clinicians to tell their patients there’s no need to take any dietary supplements if they eat a healthy diet. That’s plain wrong.

We already know that over 90% of all adults do not get enough servings of vegetables, fruit, and whole grains every day—and it’s proven that food contains less nutrition than in the past—yet the authors did not recommend doing a nutrition analysis for the patient. With little to no information about the patient’s diet, clinicians are to tell their patients to eat a healthy diet, don’t take any supplements, and go on their way.

These are exceptional researchers; they know how poor the American diet is because they’ve done much of that research. To publish this opinion was incomplete in my opinion and thus it ranks as one of the worst papers of 2018. With almost a quarter million reads and shares passed along through social media and news feeds, millions read what they wrote, and it will influence millions. My opinion is that millions will be less healthy because they accepted these recommendations and dropped their nutrition insurance: their multivitamin and omega 3s and so on.

That doesn’t mean you take every dietary supplement that comes along. The rule is simple: know what supplements you take and more important, exactly why you’re taking them. And work on eating a healthier diet in 2019 as well.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

It’s Time to Take Inventory

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The New Year is here. For many businesses, it’s time to take inventory. Companies have to know what products and assets they have in order to plan for the upcoming year. If you’ve started or will begin a health improvement program, it’s a good time to take inventory on yourself. You have to know where you begin to track progress. Here are a few areas to consider, depending on your health improvement goals:

Body Mass

Weight is obvious. It’s also important to take some measurements such as waist, hips, chest, neck, arms, thighs, and calves. Tracking inches lost or gained allows you to know where you’re losing fat or gaining muscle. Not sure what you should weigh? Check out the body mass index chart on the Health Info page.

Fitness

There are at least three areas of fitness you can test for yourself or working with a trainer: cardiovascular fitness, strength, and flexibility. There are both simple and complicated tests for each that goes beyond the scope of this memo. The type of testing depends on the priority of each element in your health improvement program. I want to add some muscle mass, so I’m going to test for strength in my arms, shoulders, chest, and legs now and periodically throughout the year.

Medical Metrics

Resting heart rate and blood pressure are easy to test. If you’re working on pre-diabetes or cholesterol levels, you’ll have to get those tested by the pros. However, if you’ve made these a priority, you probably already know where you began at your last physical.

Finally, if you haven’t had a physical to check the medical metrics, get it scheduled. You can still begin your health improvement program without a specific goal in medical metrics, but do it ASAP. If you don’t know where you’re beginning, you have no idea where you’re supposed to go.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet