The World's First “Brown Fat” Cooling Vest

HOW TO USE THIS SITE:

All Cool Fat Burner owners should read and understand this “Startup Guide” chapter.

The other chapters are bonus information:

• “Hacks, Tricks, & Shortcuts” contains a lot of helpful and unique tricks, all compiled in one place

• “Concepts You Should Know” is a summary of important information that should be helpful dispelling some myths and getting one up to speed

• “Longevity” is a short but information-packed chapter on the best ways of using diet, exercise, and cold thermogenesis to  theoretically enhance longevity

• “Advanced Concepts behind the Body Recomp plan” is all of the latest and most crucial information to get the most out of body transformation techniques.

• “The Body Recomp” plan applies the information in “Advanced Concepts” into a concrete, executable plan.  When CFB creator Eric Grove ate 18 dips of ice cream (after a full meal), had no lasting blood glucose elevations, and started the next morning with the same waistline and pumped up muscles — that was the Body Recomp plan at work.
• “Glossary” key concepts and definitions used throughout this site

 

 

The Cool Fat Burner — Startup Guide

DISCLAIMER:

The Cool Fat Burner website and device are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

• Do not wear the Cool Fat Burner or Cool Gut Buster against bare skin — wear LAYERS of clothing underneath!
• Stop immediately if you feel any burning or numbness.
• Darker complexioned users are more prone to cryoburn and sub dermal bruising that may leave long-lasting discoloration.
• Results will vary.  Age, gender, diet, physical activity level, hormone profile, etc., can all factor in weight-loss and thermal loading cold thermogenesis effectiveness.
• Keep out of reach of children.
• Consult with your physician before use.
• Do not use for more than 25-30 minutes or as recommended by a physician.
• Extreme cold near the skin for extended periods of time can cause cryoburn.
• Discontinue use if experiencing severe burning and tingling.
• Do not place gel pack directly on the skin, use gel packs only in “Cool Fat Burner” fabric vest.
• Cold exposure for long periods of time can lead to hypothermia.  Use common sense.
• If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a history of heart conditions consult with a physician before using this product.
• Do not sleep wearing the Cool Fat Burner.
• Those with diabetes should not use this product without consulting with their doctors.
• Not recommended for those with cardio-pulmonary problems.
• Do not use if you have hypersensitivity and allergic reactions to cold or have rheumatoid arthritis with cold sensitivity, any medical conditions related to cold exposure, or have skin sensation problems.
• Caution is necessary when applying cold on or near superficial nerves.
• Do not shower or bath within 30 minutes or do not engage in vigorous activity within an hour after using the “Cool Fat Burner.”
• Do not use gel packs if punctured; liquid material is biodegradable, dispose of appropriately.
• The Cool Fat Burner will not have or assume any financial responsibility or liability for medical expenses for any injury resulting from the use of this product.
• Condensation and wetness can form on the Cool Fat Burner cooling vest… be considerate of clothing, furniture, etc. and moisture contact.

 

 

CHAPTERS

Chapter 1:  Wearing the Cool Fat Burner

Chapter 2:  Times, Intensities Levels, & Effects

Chapter 3:  Supporting Factors

Chapter 4:  Concepts

Chapter 5:  Applied Strategies

Chapter 6:  Troubleshooting

Chapter 7:  Exercise

Chapter 8:  “I can’t get cold enough”

Chapter 9:  “Help, I’m not losing weight!”

Chapter 10:  It All Comes Together

QUICKSTART CHECKLIST

 

 

Cold pack materials and safety concerns:  the ingredients within our cold packs is non-toxic.  If there is a leak or they get damaged, you can safely handle and wash off the material inside.  We have a conditional minimum 1-Year Replacement policy on damaged goods when damaged during proper use.

If someone were to somehow ingest the material, you should contact a poison control number or go to the emergency room just to be safe.  While the ingredients are non-toxic, that doesn’t mean an individual could not experience an allergic reaction to the ingredients.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1:  Wearing the Cool Fat Burner:

Freezing and Wearing the Cool Fat Burner & Cool Gut Buster

Freezing the packs typically takes 8-10 hrs if they’re at room temperature, less time if they’re already cold from a previous session.  You can freeze the entire CFB & CGB vests with the packs inside, or you can freeze the cold packs separately.  Be sure “Hybrid” packs are frozen in a flat shape, or a shape that best fits your contours, as they freeze solid.  “Soft” packs should conform within ~10 minutes out of the freezer.

If you’re finding the packs aren’t freezing properly, be aware of how and where they’re stacked in your freezer (ie, close to the door vs in the back) and also be sure the freezer is turned down cold enough.  We’ve actually had customers who received the same batch of Soft packs, one say they were freezing too hard, the other customer said they were too soft out of the freezer.  So again, experiment with placement including distance from the opening, how they’re stacked (spaced out separately among other frozen items versus on top of each other) as well as freezer temperature settings.

Fabric material:  the Cool Fat Burner & Gut Buster are made of very thin fabric so as to allow for maximum hot/cold transfer.  We offer a minimum 1 Year Replacement policy if they become damaged, and free replacements for downsizing due to weight-loss and body transformation.  Never wear against bare skin; wear layers of clothing underneath.  Hand wash; do not use a washing machine.

Note:  on both devices, the pockets and packs are on the inside of the vests; the pockets face inwards, toward the body.

STORAGE:  if you can’t store  your extra packs inside your freezer, then keep them in a cool location and out of direct sunlight.  Both heat and direct sunlight can break down the materials inside the packs.  The materials inside the packs is safe and nontoxic so if the packs form a leak, you can safely wipe and rinse them off and so on — please email us and attach pics showing any leaks for quick pack replacements at Info@CoolFatBurner.com.

 

 

Wearing the Cool Fat Burner:

Lay out the vest and insert the chest packs first, followed by the back pockets.

Our specialized gel-packs start solid and deliver ice-level coldness.  (study:  ice packs deliver cold faster than gel-packs) 
Then, as you’ve reached your desired intensity level, they gradually soften and function as gel-packs,
conforming to the body, contacting an increased surface area, and maintaining your session intensity for the duration.

 

Lay chest panels over vest, cross hands and prepare to lift vest.

 

Lift and lay over shoulders.  Chest panels may drape over collar bones.

If using Soft packs, you may cross the chest panels
across the sternum right away.  (Hybrid packs cannot
cross until they soften, around 30-40 min into your session)

Applying the compression straps. They reach from the back, and the Velcro attaches to the front chest panels.

 

 

DO NOT TRY TO CROSS THE HYBRID PACKS ACROSS YOUR CHEST UNTIL THEY SOFTEN.

Instead you keep them wedged side-by-side. Then you can reapply and cross them over the sternum once they soften.

 

Once the packs soften, they’ll make greater contact with an increased surface area of the trunk.
You may have to occasionally “squish” the packs to redistribute the material to conform to your particular build.

WARNING:  keep in mind the Hybrid packs may induce fat cell “apoptosis,” the freezing and destruction of fat!  (See “Spot Reduction Apoptosis” section below.)   This means you might accidentally spot-reduce fat from your chest or anywhere the Hybrid packs lay against your body!  Women should probably use the blue Soft packs on the chest pockets of the Cool Fat Burner to avoid accidentally spot reducing breast tissue.  (More info on our packs.)

 

Wearing the Cool Gut Buster:

Lay out on flat surface, shoulder straps already connected, and with cold-packs ready.  Insert packs.

Fold over each side… while not allowing Velcro to attach.
Cross hands, grab by the straps, preparing to lift overhead.

 

Lift and lower over shoulders.

Apply the Velcro straps .  It’s better to first fix the bottom Velcro strap, and then the top one.

 

Do NOT lie down while wearing your Cool Fat Burner & Cool Gut Buster – this may put too much pressure against the back cold-packs, causing a rupture over time.

Do not let the packs lay in direct sunlight, as this may break down the freezing components.

Since one of the “secret ingredients” to our hybrid cold/gel-packs is perishable, we recommend you store your CFB packs in the freezer when not in use.

 

WEAR THE GUT BUSTER ON TOP OF AND NOT UNDERNEATH, THE COOL FAT BURNER!

Put the CFB on first.  THEN put on the Gut Buster second, so that the Gut Buster straps weigh down on the CFB, adding more compression.

The picture below is only for modeling and demonstration purposes; most users will instead want to wear the vests opposite of how they look in the picture; the top Cool Fat Burner vest should be underneath the Gut Buster, instead of on top, as shown in this pic:

The final, right-most pocket in the Gut Buster in sizes Med and above is somewhat larger than the other pockets.  It still is meant to hold only a single pack.  The extra size allows that pack to slide and accommodate a size range of a few more inches in the waistline.

If your packs fall out?  Once is a while, we’ll someone will ask “How do I keep the packs in the pockets.”  Answer:  by not turning them upside down.  It really is that simple.   When loading the vests, putting them on, then taking them off, you never need to turn them upside down.  With a little common sense, the packs should never fall out.

 

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Chapter 2:

Times, Intensity Levels, & Effects

How long and at what Intensity level you wear the Cool Fat Burner will largely determine the effects you receive.

The “Cool Down.” 

Just as exercise has a warm-up, thermal loading with the Cool Fat Burner has the “Cool Down.”  And as a warm-up is merely preparation for the actual workout, the Cool Down is prep for your thermal loading session.  In other words, the Cool Down time does not count towards your session time.

How long does the Cool Down take?  This depends on your Supporting Factors and how fast and aggressively you attain your desired intensity level.

The Cool Down should rarely last more than 15 minutes.  Once you’ve reached your intended Intensity level, then and only then does your session start.

 

Duration

It’s advised no one goes longer than 25-30 minutes without their doctor’s consent.  In time you can gauge personal response and slowly increase time; if you do longer sessions, do so at your own responsibility. On the Cool Fat Burner website, you can see video of CFB creator Eric maintaining “Hardcore” Intensity for a full 2 hours under university testing… then sitting in the same cold room for many more hours after the session.  For someone weighing 195lbs, one could easily pass 1000 calories burned in a number of hours.  (2 hr session + many hours ‘lounging’ afterwards in same, cool room)  Our university group experiment had the subjects where the vests at a higher intensity for two 30 minute blocks.  The duration of your sessions, multiplied by the calories burned per minute (intensity level) will determine how many total calories you burn.  If you’re using the Gut Buster for the ‘coolsculpting’ effect, one would generally work up to around an hour long session; see “Spot Reduction” section below for more details.

 

 

Intensity Levels

Intensity level is often described as two categories of mild, non-shivering cold versus shivering cold thermogenesis.  To be more thorough, we could describe the spectrum as:

Low intensity
– mild non-shivering
Moderate intensity
– deeper chill non-shivering
High intensity
– mild pre-shivering
– light shivering
– intense shivering

 

As one increases intensity, different physiological systems are engaged, and different effects and benefits can occur. Keep in mind that each increase in intensity level will still include and incorporate the systems and consequent benefits of each previous level.  You don’t lose or transition from one to the next; you keep and move on to include the benefits from the previous to the next level.  So the highest levels of intensity still includes all the physiological systems and related effects and benefits of all levels below it.

Low level intensity — at the lowest level of cold exposure, one barely feels cold at all.  This engages the parasympathetic nervous system, slightly increases breathing, and has a very small metabolic boost.  This level of intensity is good for rest and relaxation, may enhance sleep, but has little impact on actual calorie burning or weight loss per se.

Moderate intensity – this mid-level area of intensity is cold enough that you feel it… but not yet shivering, and probably should not even include pre-shivering.  You might get cold enough to get goosebumps at this level (though many may not actually experience goosebumps per se).  This is the level of brown fat activation and skeletal muscle uncoupling.  For most people, sitting with little clothing in a 60’F room would probably put them at this level of intensity.  This can drastically increase glucose uptake from the blood stream and improve insulin sensitivity.  This level will also begin to cause a boost to the immune system.   This level may also be enough to positively effect cellular mitochondria, which may help with longevity.  Metabolic increases may reach as high as 15-20% at this level.  To get a quick and noticeable total calorie burn at Moderate intensity, one could need to spend many hours a day at this level of intensity.  This may be why such proponents of cold thermogenesis such as Ray Cronise and Jack Kruse recommend sleeping in the cold while wearing minimal clothes and having only sheets on the bed.  This way one would spend all sleeping hours at this level and get 7-8 hours a day in.

The Cool Fat Burner is the first and only commercial cooling vest proven to activate brown fat, and keep it active for hours after removing the vest, keeping it active in an environment too warm to otherwise activate BAT.  As shown in the video, one can activate BAT by wearing the vest, then lounge in a cool room for hours after the CFB session, their BAT may be active that entire time.  Thus one can get the many hours needed for brown fat calorie burning to add up.

 

 

 

Even though this level probably shouldn’t include pre-shivering, for many people who are not yet cold-adapted, being exposed to this level of cold would probably eventually cause them to start shivering.  If you had them be sparsely dressed and sitting in a 60’F room, they might not shiver right away, but after probably 30 min or so, they would start shivering.

High intensity – this is the level of pre-shivering through all-out shivering.  When one is about to shiver, there metabolism jump around 80-100%.  As one enters even the most subtle levels of shivering – yes, there are different levels and degrees to shivering – metabolism boost can jump up to 300%.  At all out shivering, metabolism jumps to 500%.  This is a massive calorie burn that rivals higher intensity exercise.

NOTE:  If you want specific calorie burn numbers of your Cool Fat Burner session, multiply the boost (15% for low intensity, 3-500% for high intensity) times your “resting metabolic rate”  (RMR).  You get your RMR with online calculators, or even better, by going to a local lab and directly measuring via indirect calorimetry.  Please note that as  you become cold adapted, your RMR may go up and be above what the calculators will show.  This number would of course be higher if you do your sessions while moving about the house, standing at a desk, or doing a winter ‘shiver walk’ outside.

 

Shivering should be approached similar to sprinting.  If you’re doing wind-sprints, you do not sprint for the entire workout.  Instead you sprint, then walk (or lightly jog).  Sprint, then walk.  Repeat over and over.  This is the case with most high intensity interval exercise sessions.  Brief periods of high intensity, followed by longer active rest periods.  One should probably take a similar approach to shivering; veer up into high intensity shivering, then back off for a while.  Repeat over and over.  In the original indirect calorimetry experiment, looking at the calorie burn graph (red line)  shows a similar pattern of peaks and valleys for the work vs rest, yet the overall average was a 300% boost to calorie burning.

 

 

Shivering also is the fastest way to form more brown fat, and convert your existing white fat (subcutaneous fat) into “beige” or “brite” fat, which burns more calories than regular white fat.

Shivering can also deplete muscle glycogen, allowing one to enter ketosis faster and can therefore be helpful for those on ketogenic and cyclic keto diets.  Shivering will also allow for more frequent carb re-feeds (which allows for more frequent boosting of leptin and thyroid – see other chapters on hormonal effects of food).  In it’s effects on muscle glycogen shivering is very similar to HIIT, or “high intensity interval training” type exercise.

Shivering also causes the biggest increase in the hormones adiponectin and irisin, both being studied for their roles in muscle growth, reduced oxidative stress, reduced inflammation, preventative of many metabolic diseases, and shown to be related to longevity.

And since high intensity cold thermogenesis – shivering – includes all the benefits of the lower intensities, you’re still getting a boosted immune system, improved insulin sensitivity, and so on, probably even to greater degrees than if you only do your sessions at the lower intensities.

 

        Intensity                                   Sensations                                                               Effects

Casual	General coolness, feeling generally “cooled off”	Mild calorie burn; adds up over time
Low	Chilled spots, up to mild goose bumps	Calorie burn; may burn off glucose from bloodstream
Moderate	A deeper chill, possibly goose bumps (or thereabouts)	Skeletal muscles uncoupling.  BAT activation.  Moderate calorie burn.  Boosted immune system.
High	Pre-shiver to full shivering	Adiponectin & irisin.  Direct fat burn & muscle building.  Huge calorie burn from shivering.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3:

Supporting Factors

The Cool Fat Burner was made to give you a choice as to what Intensity level you achieve and what results you experience.   Merely wearing the CFB in a normal temperature room (70 degree) will put most in Low to Moderate intensity, and will allow for a passive slow calorie burn over time.  To rise to the higher levels may require the use of Supporting Factors.

• Room temperature:  70 F and below
• Gulp ice water:  rotate 2-3 glasses in the freezer to where they’re nearly freezing over at the top
• Posture:  sitting with the arms resting against the Gut Buster can allow the vest to also cool the brachial arteries inside of your biceps
• Relaxation:  this is important; release all tension during your sessions, and stay relaxed
• Cautiously reduce clothing over time  (never ignore sensations of burning, stinging, or tingling on the skin!)

 

Clothing

Wear layers of clothing, then gradually reduce over time as you gauge your skin reaction and personal tolerance.   Wear socks and gloves for higher intensity sessions. (“Socks and Gloves,” Ch 4)

 

Environment / Air Conditioning

Cooler environment will obviously make thermal loading quicker and easier.  A room temp set to 68 or 69 degrees will be enough for most to maintain Hardcore (shivering) for a solid 60 minute session.

 

Ice Water

Drink ice water.  Some start a session (after the Cool Down, as the session doesn’t start until the Cool Down is over) by drinking a large amount of ice water.  Drink throughout to maintain desired Intensity.

 

Wet T-shirt?

Some have reported cold soaking then ring out a wet T-shirt to wear under their vests.  This can be risky, and probably not advised, or required.  You should get cold enough with a dry shirt underneath the vests. Note:  we do NOT advise having ANY moisture underneath your Cool Gut Buster, as it may allow for freeze burns of the skin underneath the packs.

 

Exercise, hot showers, hot food, and other sources of external heat

Many use the Cool Fat Burner to increase cold adaptation and activate the related systems and benefits that brings.  This means you need to allow your body to change and adapt to the cold stimulus.  Anything that lessens that stimulus by bringing in external heat will hinder your efforts.  Therefore one should time their CFB sessions so as to not be too close to other “heat generating activities.”

Exercise, hot showers, hot tub and sauna, hot food (and especially hot protein foods, since protein also has a high “thermal effect” and forces you body to burn calories just to digest it, thus generating heat), warm clothes, etc., can all reduce your body’s adaptation to the cold stimulus via introducing other sources of heat, and thus reducing the need for your body to adapt.  Also keep in mind that cold thermogenesis can reduce system inflammation, which is obviously good for a variety of health benefits, but may also blunt the positive inflammation that comes from exercise, and to which is probably necessary to cause some of the positive adaptations of exercise — pointing to another reason to separate the timing of CFB sessions from your exercise sessions.

The most strenuous physical activity one should do during a session would probably be slow, casual walks while wearing the vests, ideally in a cold environment.  When one does a ‘shiver walk’ in winter, they should be careful to walk as casually as possible to reduce generating any heat from the exercise itself.  The goal is to have all heat to come from brown fat and activation of related cold stress systems.

How long should you wait after a session before you can eat hot food, throw on more clothes, workout etc?  Can’t say.  How long was the session?  What intensity?  How cold adapted are you going into the session?  What are your goals?  Too many variables to give a personalized answer.  A generic response would be to wait until you’ve naturally warmed up and returned to ‘normal’ functioning before introducing external sources of heat.

 

Posture

Try not to sit or lie in heat-conserving positions during your sessions.  Try not to cross your legs, don’t sit with arms tucked against your body, unless you’re wearing the Gut Buster – then placing your arms against the CFB can allow the outsides of the packs to cool the brachial arteries along the insides of your biceps.  It may seem trivial, but it can make a huge difference in your intensity level.  Merely by changing posture Eric was able to intentionally and on demand raise and lower the intensity levels in the UCSD indirect calorimetry experiment.

 

Eric’s personal setup:

“I personally wear both devices against bare skin, but that is not advised or recommended – I guarantee that even wearing against a too-thin shirt will allow most to get cryboburn if they’re not yet cold-adapted.  I wear a warm hat over my ears, fingerless gloves (to allow use of the computer, etc) and double layers of socks, or thick work socks.  (If it’s winter and I’m doing a “Shiver Walk” outside I also wear several layers of shorts)

“I also have an ice machine on my freezer and 3 huge glasses (glass or metal, not plastic – plastic may contain BPA’s) that I fill w/ water and ice, and rotate them in the freezer.  When a glass just starts to freeze over the top, I take it out and start gulping down the water.  I always take at least 3-4 big gulps at a time, and try and quickly get the cold water down in, not letting it warm up on the way down.

“I have a dedicated cold thermo room.  In the summer, it has several A/C units and in the winter, the heat is kept low or even off.  If I’m running both the TV and computer and they’re throwing off too much heat, I’ve even put in a window-fan to blow in the freezing cold air (in winter).  I do all of my sessions in this room while I watch TV or am on the computer.  Along with my standing desk, I can burn literally 6-700 calories in a single several-hour session.

“My sessions are rarely less than 3-4 hours total.  I typically wear one or both devices simultaneously, usually around 1.5 to 2 hours.  I then lounge in the same, cold room for another couple hours, totaling 3-4 hours.  When I wear the devices I do interval shivering (or “shiver surfing”) where I go in and out of shivering.  That is the majority of the time wearing the vests.  When I take off the vests and lounge in the cold room, I’ll still sometimes slam some more ice water to increase intensity, maybe briefly shoot back up into hardcore intensity.

“I do not advise beginners try to copy what I’m doing.  You’ll probably get cryoburn, maybe even low-grade hypothermia, your immune system might get beat down, you’ll get sick and tired of the sessions in general, and you’ll eventually quit.  Instead you should start out slow and gradually build up your own tolerance and cold adaptation and do your sessions as needed to hit your particular goals on your own timetable.”

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4:

Concepts

What strategies you use depend on what your goals are…
–  Are you looking for an emergency huge, ‘crash’ weight loss?
–  A more sustainable and long-term fat-burn?
–  Merely boosting your metabolism?
–  Help control blood sugar levels?
–  An aid to help maintain a target physique while you alter your exercise or dietary habits?
–  Are you using the Cool Fat Burner more for rest, relaxation, or a sleeping aid?
–  Or are you using it for exercise recovery or injury management?
–  Or perhaps it’s part of a holistic approach to reestablish a more truthful, “primal pathway” to health?

You will obviously use different strategies for different goals.  But in the end, the best strategy is whatever is sustainable.

 

On weight loss… the generic approach

1 pound of fat is estimated to be around 3500 calories.  A slow, sustainable, and realistic approach to weight loss would be to lose 1 pound of fat per week.  That’s an average of 500 calories a day.  (Some days may be more, others less; what matters is the average over time.)

500 calories X 7 days = 3500 calories.  That’s 1lb of fat.

So between diet, exercise, and cold thermogenesis with the Cool Fat Burner, you should be able to easily reduce an average of 500 calories each day.

If you’re looking for a faster, increased weight-loss, then obviously increase any or all of those factors; diet, exercise, and thermal loading.  Now that you have three separate ways to remove calories, you could easily subtract 1000 or more calories a day!  But how sustainable is that?  Be honest with yourself.  Your lifetime is the time frame.  This isn’t something you should intend to quit after a month or two.  So visualize, plan, and act accordingly.  Also realize, it’s easy to lose muscle instead of fat if the caloric deficit is too high, especially if you don’t do resistance training and don’t eat enough protein.

Unless it is a true medical emergency, it is recommended you take the sure, steady, and sustainable path to weight loss.  That is, 1lb of fat per week.  (That’s an average – probably some weeks will be more, others less, especially in the beginning when dietary changes result in losing water weight, before you get used to working out, or before you become “cold adapted” and have a constantly boosted metabolism.)  Also realize that hormonal changes such as insulin sensitivity can affect the rate of fat loss over time.

 

“Crash” Weight-Loss

Crash weight-loss is feasible so long as you realize it’s short-term and you have a more realistic and sustainable plan to follow.  Extreme dieting and high intensity thermal loading can shed pounds of fat fast.  Exercise could also, but if you’re new to exercise or overweight, intense exercise before you’re ready will lead to soreness, probably burnout, and possibly injury.

 

Tape Measure vs the Scale

Muscle weighs 3 times more than fat, and adiponectin can increase muscle growth.  Post-exercise recovery can indirectly enhance muscular growth.  Lower glucose (and thus, lower insulin) can maximize growth hormone release.  Both adiponectin and irisin can directly help build muscle.  So you may actually gain lean muscle mass from cold thermogenesis.  This means that even though you’re losing fat weight, you could be gaining muscle weight.  The scale may not accurate reflect your progress.

Consider using the tape measure or calipers and don’t rely solely on the scale to determine progress.  (Many health enthusiasts recommend us to “throw away the scale!”  This may be good advice.  Of all the metrics related to health and fitness, weight is probably last on the list.  Ditch the scale.  Worry about waistline, performance, and appearance in the mirror.  We’re not just worrying about “weight-loss.”  We’re concerned with whole body re-composition!) In other words, if you gained a lot of muscle and lost a lot of fat, you could actually be healthier, look better, function more truthfully… and weigh more.     Start Slow If you’re new to cold thermogenesis, perhaps start at Casual intensity for the first few days or so.  The 2nd week you can try Moderate intensity.  If you are really “feeling it,” you can rise into Hardcore intensity the 3rd week.  It depends on you and your goals.

 

 Cold Adaptation, BAT activation & Resting Metabolism

Cold adaptation is both a physiological and psychological process.  You can go as fast or slow as you like.  There are different levels to cold adaptation, somewhat corresponding to the different levels of intensity.  The highest levels may increase resting metabolic rate.

To build up and maintain cold adaptation will require regular cold thermogenesis sessions at least in the beginning.  Certain physiological effects / benefits of cold thermogenesis may be somewhat permanent, or at the very least, take very little maintenance to upkeep.

Experiments have shown that brown fat acclimation to cold thermogenesis can start to happen within a week or so.  This means that at moderate, non-shivering intensity, your BAT will start to increase within a week, and probably maximize within a month.  (Assuming daily CFB use – also staring in winter vs summer can obviously have a huge impact on how fast you adapt)  As you build up more BAT, you will probably burn off more glucose during your sessions and get a slightly enhanced calorie burn effect.

When becoming adapted to moderate levels of intensity, you will not be bothered by similar temperatures in real life.  You can walk around in cool weather with minimal clothing while others have to wear coats.

Higher level intensity will bring a deeper cold adaptation.

Being able to wear both devices simultaneously against bare skin, outside in sub-freezing temps and not even get goosebumps…  Being able to eat massive amounts of food and stay ripped, all while maintaining stellar health markers… boosted immune system, boosted resting metabolism, boosted longevity attributes… these are the possible benefits of high cold adaptation.

 

Cold Adaptation and the Immune System

It’s been shown in many studies that being cold adapted boosts the immune system.  (One interesting study on women training to swim the English channel, their immune systems ramped up just thinking about the days’ swim!)  This is a hermetic effect, where the body increases and adapts to a stressor over time.  However some CFB users report back getting sick when they first use the CFB.  This means they’re doing too much, too fast.  One must go at the appropriate speed, intensity, duration, and frequency.  Take it slow at first.  If you’re getting sick, ease back on the intensity first, session duration second.  If you’re still getting sick, check your lifestyle; diet and sleep.  Are you getting all your nutrients; if not, consider a multi-vitamin.  And check your sleep hygiene.  Note that time of year when starting your CFB use may also factor in.  (Starting out in summer vs winter, where you may have a lot more peripheral cold exposure due to weather.)

 

Cycling

In many human endeavors – like diet and exercise – it helps to cycle things.  To frequently change the methods, action, intensity, or content.  This helps to mix it up, prevent boredom, and avoid plateaus.  In the same manner, you can cycle your use of the Cool Fat Burner.  Perhaps use it for 2 months.  Then take a few weeks or even months off.  Perhaps even temporarily substitute with cold showers, shiver walks, or ice baths.  Find what works best for you.  (Just keep in mind the lack of calorie burn when you’re off cycle, then adjust your diet and exercise to compensate.)

Ideally one will integrate some sort of thermal loading into almost every day; one will never cycle completely off cold thermogenesis, for fear of losing the “cold adapted” state, and all the health benefits it affords.

Some “primal health” practitioners use their CFBs primarily during the winter to cold adapt with the seasons.

 

Socks, Gloves, & Hats — fingers, toes, ears, and nose

Wearing socks and gloves during your sessions is beneficial for several reasons.  The first is psychological, the second is physiological. The hands and feet, nose and ears have many sensory nerves for cold, and serve as the “early warning signs” out in nature to your brain for cold exposure.  But those who wear the Cool Fat Burner describe it as “relaxing” and “soothing.”  Add to that socks and gloves – keeping your hands and feet warm – and it makes wearing the Cool Fat Burner an even more relaxing experience.

What’s more, this can potentially amplify the fat-burning, muscle-building effects of the Cool Fat Burner… By keeping your hands and feet warm, you’re telling your brain, “all is well.”  Thus, your trunk does not withhold heat in the torso as it would if your hands and feet got cold out in nature.  And so by keeping your hands and feet warm, you trick your body into allowing even more heat to be pulled into the Cool Fat Burner, which should allow even more of a thermal loading effect! That means potentially more calories and fat burned, more muscle preserved, and better exercise recovery!

 

 

This is a holdover from living out in the wilderness.  Everyone has experienced being too warm in bed, then sticking their feet out from under the blanket…and cooling off.  During our CFB sessions we do the same thing, in reverse.  We chill our torso, heat the extremities.  Similar principle: animals in tropical climates often lower body temperature by standing in water.

 

Empty Heading

The “ancient pathway” and Primal Health

Our ancestors didn’t eat genetically modified grains and refined sugars.  There were no “donut trees.”  They didn’t sit in one position all day, and weren’t under constant low-level abstract stress.  They weren’t exposed to unnatural light sources all hours of the night.  And they didn’t have indoor heating.  Cold thermogenesis is being used in the paleo community as part of reestablishing a state of original, primal health.  This goes far beyond mere weight-loss, effecting the large-scale activity of whole-body energetics and hormonal balance, working all the way down to our individual cellular mitochondria and even DNA gene expression.  This involves incorporating the CFB as an element of a “primal health” sensibility.

 

Diet, a generic approach

There are certain dietary principles that can influence cold thermogenesis (CT).

For example, it has been shown that fasted CT sessions seem to allow for greater BAT activation than fed sessions.  It’s also been shown that high blood glucose levels can stifle adiponectin levels during CT sessions.  More evidence should be done before concrete conclusions are drawn…

Consider doing your sessions on an empty stomach, perhaps even while fasted.  Or the longest in-between meals.  If you can’t do sessions on an empty stomach, go for a no, low, or slow-carb meal as the nearest last meal before your session.  Cold thermogenesis is popular in both the Paleo and Slow-Carb communities.  Both diets eliminate simple, processed carbs and sugars, and include high levels of protein and cruciferous veggies.  Your blood glucose is rarely spiked up on those diets, and they go well with thermal loading.

For specific dietary principles, see the “Quick Start Checklist” at the end of this chapter.  For an advanced approach, see “Advanced Concepts behind the Body Recomp plan” chapter.  The “Tricks & Hacks” chapter also has some food shortcuts.

 

Glucose Clearing, Insulin Sensitivity, and Diabetes

Those with diabetes should be careful when doing cold thermogenesis.  The CFB can drastically and quickly burn up blood glucose and cause one’s BGL (blood glucose levels) to drop really quickly.  Cold exposure can cause “non-insulin mediated glucose uptake,” which is a fancy way of saying that it forces your body to burn glucose even in the absence of insulin (insulin is otherwise normally released after you eat food; the insulin pulls the food molecules out of the bloodstream and into tissues to be used).  Note that the glucose uptake caused from the CFB is system-wide.  This differs from exercise for example, where only the exercised muscles will show increased glucose uptake.  With CFB use, brown fat and most of the muscles throughout the entire body will pull in and use glucose and other nutrients.  (The CFB is currently undergoing testing at Mount Sinai, in relation to cold exposure and diabetes.)

So how to use the Cool Fat Burner to reduce the damage from junk food, empty carbs, and cheat meals?  Since cold thermogenesis will burn off glucose and push it into your brown fat and muscles, the key is to time it for the best results.  It would be advisable to wait at least 1-2 hour after your carb meal before doing your cold therapy session, but not much longer than 3 hours, as you may miss the window of opportunity.  (More studies are required to nail this one down to an ideal time.)  When one puts all this together — exercise, PWO carb refeeds, followed by CFB use, one can get incredible pumps in the muscles, in part due to re-filling the muscles up with glucose/glycogen.

Burning off muscle glycogen in general will force your body to burn fat instead of glucose for fuel (assuming no carbs in the interim), and doing it an hour or so before exercise may force your muscles to adapt to low-glycogen training, and will certainly speed up ketosis for those on a ketogenic diet.  Burning off glucose at night may cause a larger growth hormone release during sleep, increasing repair and restoration.  See “Applied Strategies” below for detailed applications.

 

Glycogen depletion & Fat Adaptation

Glycogen depletion can give a similar effect as ‘wooshing fat’ and spot-reduction apoptosis (both described below)

Glycogen is the starchy fuel in muscles used for high intensity movement and work.  It is also stored in the liver and also released during higher intensity physically demanding work.  Glycogen is a form of glucose.  Glucose is derived from the carbohydrates you eat.  Thus reducing carbs will eventually deplete glycogen.  Certain types of exercise can also deplete glycogen.  And higher intensity cold thermogenesis (pre-shivering through shivering level) can also deplete glycogen.  Doing all three – diet, exercise, and high intensity CFB use – can allow one to largely deplete their glycogen stores within a day or so (it can otherwise take people many days to do this).

When your glycogen is depleted you typically go into ketosis, which means you’re burning fat (in the form of ketones) as your primary fuel source, instead of glucose.  This is what happens during low-carb ketogenic diets.  Thus cold thermogenesis, especially at higher intensities, can speed up acquiring the ketogenic state, which can be helpful for those on ketogenic diets, especially cyclic-ketogenic diets (keto diets that have carb refeeds).  Even at lower intensity CFB sessions BAT activation can hasten ketosis if your sessions are long enough.

So when one depletes glycogen – be it from diet, exercise, or cold thermogenesis – it can give a fast, ‘leaned out’ feel and appearance.  Keep in mind though, that most of this initial weight drop is largely water loss.

Also see the chapter “Principles You Should Know.”  When one is glycogen depleted, one may burn fat as their primary fuel source, but that does not mean you’ll necessarily lose weight.  Whether you burn fat, glucose, or glycogen, all that ultimately matters in regards to fat loss is that you’re in a net energy deficit over time.

 

“Wooshing” fat & overnight weight loss

Body Recomposition writer Lyle McDonald talks of “wooshing fat” in regards to fat burning and weight loss.  This can especially happen with competitive fitness models and others who engage in serious and significant weight loss, taking them below their “Set Point” and getting into extremely low levels of fat, where the body tries to hold onto as much fat as it can.

Wooshing fat is the phenomenon where it seems like fat loss has stalled… and then seems to happen all at once.  Here is probably what happens:  when one burns fat, they are burning “free fatty acids” that are emptied from their fat cells.  So the fat cell remains, but is “empty.”  This is what weight loss really is; draining or emptying your fat cells.  In the case of wooshing fat, one’s empty fat cells may temporarily fill with water after emptying their FFA.  So even though you’ve technically ‘burned’ that fat away, it appears to still be there, as the fat cells are temporarily filled with water.

Then when the cells finally release the water, it seems like you lose a bunch of weight all at once.

This can be especially pronounced in fitness competitor types who not only lose a lot of fat taking them below Set Point, but who also may have great fluctuations in sodium and other electrolytes due to their regimented and intense methods.

How is this related to the Cool Fat Burner?  Personal experience and customer feedback implies that during certain high intensity sessions, especially ones that may be near the apoptosis level of intensity on the stomach area, that this phenomenon may also occur, that water may be forced out of already-burnt-fat cells, and that one can basically induce a “wooshing” of fat.

 

Post-Exercise Recovery

The Cool Fat Burner directly applies ice-level coldness to the upper body, as well as whole-body hormonal changes.  To get the benefits of post-workout recovery, use the Cool Fat Burner several hours after exercise.  Moderate to Hardcore intensity for around an hour or more would probably be ideal.

If you feel your chest, lats, shoulders, and arms pumped up in the few minutes after removing the CFB… you know you’ve had a good recovery session.  The pumped feeling may correlate to an influx of blood and may attenuate muscle soreness.  Or it may be due to the enhanced glucose uptake, forcing more nutrients into your muscles.  The hormone irisin has been shown to reduce myostatin, which can allow for increased muscle growth.

We do not recommend using the CFB immediately after exercise.  Exercise induced inflammation is actually good, and is necessary for the improved adaptations (strength, size) to take place.  Using the CFB too close to exercise may blunt that positive inflammation.  (This is also why one should not use mega-doses of anti-oxidants, or NSAIDs around exercise, as they have also been shown to reduce the positive exercise induced inflammation, and thus, reduce improved adaptations.)

Do you see the potential benefits?  Imagine feeling a little stronger, a little sooner, after every single workout.  Imagine hitting the next workout a little better, with a little more momentum, and a little more umph.  Now imagine that adding up over weeks and months!  Imagine what results that will yield to your training over time.

 

Injury Management

The typical Rx for sprains and injuries is 20/20.  Twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off.  That is, twenty minutes icing an injury, then twenty minutes off.  Repeat.  Add compression if possible.  RICE.  (rest, ice, compression, elevation)

The Cool Fat Burner has that covered automatically.

Many users have reported how soothing and therapeutic CFB sessions are to old, chronic injuries.  Those with sore necks and shoulders love wearing the CFB.  You really don’t need to cycle 20/20.  Just wear it for a while and see how it goes.

 

Rest, relaxation, & Sleep Enhancement

Cold thermogenesis can be become a relaxed and soothing experience.  Personal factors vary.  Some report a deeper sleep from mere Casual sessions.  Others require a Moderate session to get an effect to their sleep.  Some precede their CFB sessions with cold showers. One thing seems constant from reports:  the session should be done an hour or more before bedtime.

 

After the Session…

It’s been shown that wearing the Cool Fat Burner can not only activate brown fat, but can keep BAT active for hours after the session if one remains in a 70’F room.  If one were to lounge in a chilled room, even in the mid-60’s, it would probably enable CT to continue even longer.

Probably the best approach would be to allow oneself to naturally warm up via cold thermogenesis, and not by introducing external heat (food, clothes, shower, etc).

 

The “After Drop”

Many people experience this phenomenon.  When they remove their vests and start to wind down their session, they actually feel colder for a while.  This is called the ‘After Drop’ by the “Iceman” Wim Hof,” and anyone who has done cold thermogenesis has probably experienced this.  Whatever level your session was at,  you’ll tend to temporarily boost up into the next level for a few minutes after removing the vest.  This is a common phenomenon, but doesn’t have a whole lot of practical significance.  It’s mentioned here as a “FYI” factoid.

 

Post Session Muscle Pump

Sometimes CFB users will report back feeling their muscles being pumped up after a session.  This is due to increased glucose uptake into the muscles.  This experience can be especially pronounced when used after a post-workout carb refeed meal.  (see “Applied Strategies” below)  This is how the Cool Fat Burner may help with insulin sensitivity, and why it is often recommended by doctors to patients with high blood sugar.  This phenomenon may also help promote muscle recovery after a workout.

 

Post Session Heat generation

Once one becomes cold adapted, they’ll often feel massive swells of heat generation for hours after a session.  This is normal, and implies continued thermogesis.  This may not occur after every session, and your perception of it may change based on the environment temp you’re in after the session as well.

 

Melatonin

Melatonin is probably the only supplement more or less guaranteed to consistently activate and enhance brown fat activity.  Melatonin is often taken as a sleep aid around 20 minutes before bedtime to enhance and boost the natural metatonin levels from one’s own pineal gland.

Melatonin is safe, doesn’t cause tolerance (your body doesn’t build up resistance to its effects), and is thought to be neuroprotective, help prevent cardiovascular disease, and fight certain types of cancer.

If you’re cold adapted and take some melatonin, you may feel your BAT fire up almost as though you’ve just finished a CRB session.  This is normal; part of melatonin’s health benefits probably rise from its ability to activate brown fat.  (One study showed women who were otherwise prone to developing diabetes but did not had higher levels of melatonin in their blood stream.  This may imply they have more active brown fat, which means better blood glucose control).

A common dose is 3mg around 20 minutes before you plan on going to sleep.  Some people take 6 and even 10 mg per dose.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5:

Applied Strategies

 

Mixing intensities – interval shivering — for max calorie burn and cold adaptation

High intensity cold thermogenesis (shivering) can boost metabolism from 300-500%.  But that may be too intense an experience for some.  Moderate intensity gives around a 10-20% boost.  Easy to do, but not a huge calorie burn.  The answer then is to mix the intensities.

“Interval shivering,” (or “shiver surfing”) is the practice of intentionally veering temporarily up into high intensity and shivering for a few moments… then relaxing back down into moderate intensity for a time.  In the same way that one does not constantly sprint during a run, but may mix sprinting with walking and jogging, one can mix intensities of a CFB session.  Repeat over and over, using one’s intuition and biofeedback to spend the appropriate time in each intensity level.

Slight shiver for 10 second > rest at Moderate for 1 minute > repeat

Remember the original indirect calorimetry experiment where CFB inventor Eric G. consciously goes between shivering and relaxation while showing a 300% metabolic boost.  You can see in the video he only occasionally shivers… and this directly corresponds to the calorie burning chart (the increase and decrease of the line).

So even though one is only briefly veering into shivering and certainly not spending much time there, the overall calorie burn rate and metabolic boost still stays up at that high level for the overall average amount.  It’s essentially doing HIIT (“high intensity interval training”) for cold thermogenesis, instead of exercise.

 

 

Using with exercise & post-workout re-feed 

 

 

 Fasted (Morning) sessions for Stubborn Fat loss

“Stubborn fat” is literally different than our other subcutaneous fat.  It has different receptors on the fat cells themselves and are less likely to release their “free fatty acids” into the blood stream to be burned.  Stubborn fat is that fat that is hard to get rid of, the last to leave, and the first to be re-gained.  Stubborn fat is there as a survival mechanism, to be used in our evolutionary past, during hard times of little food.

The fat on the lower stomach and love handles for men and hips and thighs for women, tends to be stubborn fat.  This type of fat also has less blood flow, also making it harder to access and burn off via the blood stream.  Note those places of stubborn fat tend to be cooler to the touch (from the lesser blood flow)

Please note that stubborn fat probably will not burn off until you’ve already gotten down to that level of leanness.  In other words, you won’t burn off your stubborn fat until you’ve already burned off most of your regular fat.

NOTE:  this is one area where men typically have it worse than women – the order that fat leaves the body.  Both men and women will lose fat from all over, including the upper body, before the losing the more stubborn fat in the stomach and hips.  But for men, this can be visually a less optimal situation.  Most men typically want some type of muscle mass on the chest, shoulders, and arms.  When men lose weight, they first lose fat over their chest, shoulders, and arms.  Yet the fat from their stomachs still hasn’t moved.  This can by psychologically trying during the early stages of fat loss for men.  They see their upper bodies getting small, yet their waistline isn’t moving.  Many men quit at this stage, before ever getting down to burning off the stomach fat.

One of the most popular methods of burning off stubborn fat is to do fasted exercise, typically metabolic type exercise like cardio or interval training or something that gets the heartrate up.  Here we’ll do the same thing, but replace exercise with the Cool Fat Burner and Gut Buster.

Sleep & wake > fasted CFB session > post session meal (protein)

So you’ll be fasted.  For most, the easiest time is morning, before breakfast.  Do a CFB session, at least at Moderate but ideally at High intensity.  Or do interval shivering as described earlier in this section.  If you’re already somewhat lean, this is probably one of the best ways to use cold thermogenesis to access and burn that stubborn fat.

This type of strategy is used on the Metabolic variant of the “Body Recomp” plan (see related chapter).

Make sure to get a high protein meal after your CFB session.  Going too long without protein, especially if you’re burning calories, can allow for muscle loss.  So hit the protein after your session.

 

 

 Pre-workout for glycogen depletion

Note:  glycogen is the starchy fuel stored in muscles (and the liver) derived from carbohydrates and sugar and used for explosive movement and exercise.  Eating carbs helps to replenish glycogen, cutting out carbs will delete glycogen.  High intensity exercise, where your muscles are burning and hurting during the activity, is also burning up and depleting glycogen in those muscles being worked.  And cold thermogenesis can also deplete glycogen system-wide.

When you are depleted of glycogen, your body more readily burns fat.  It also allows for a large carb re-feed, as those carbs will be used to restore those depleted glycogen stores.  This gives one a “free pass” on eating carbs, since they can’t be stored as fat during that time period.

Interesting things happen if you exercise while already having depleted muscle glycogen.  The most evident is that you’ll burn mostly fat instead of glucose/glycogen to fuel your workout.  However if you’re not used to it, your session will probably suffer.  After all, glycogen is the primary fuel for most athletic activities.  Working out with low glycogen can be grueling, depending on the type of workout.  (see the “Strength / Endurance Spectrum”)

But if you do cardio and endurance work while you are glycogen depleted, it can induce some very beneficial adaptations.  Probably the most profound change is upregulating “mitochondrial biogenesis.”  This can have an effect on your muscularity, athletic performance, but also on disease prevention and longevity.  (see “Longevity”)

The way to apply this strategy:

1. The day before:  eat few to no carbs for the day.  Eat around 1 gm protein /lb bodyweight.  The rest of your calories should come only from fat.
   1. Do a high intensity CFB session, spending a significant time in the shiver state
   2. Optional – do some (either high intensity or high rep resistance) glycogen depleting workout (do high reps per set and total number of sets, make the muscles burn, moderate heart rate throughout, etc etc)
2. The day of, continue to eat no carbs
3. CFB:  do either a long Moderate intensity session, or a briefer High intensity session, several hours before the workout
4. Finally, do cardio or some similar moderate intensity exercise.  Do not engage in high intensity exercise.  Should probably go for a good 45-60 minutes.

So the day before, you’ve depleted much of your glycogen (diet + CFB + HIIT or high-rep, lighter-weight lifting).
The day of the workout, you again deplete in the morning (diet + CFB), then workout at the proper intensity (cardio range) while already having depleted your glycogen the day before.  You’ll be burning almost entirely fat fuel for the workout, and you’ll begin to induce mitochondrial biogenesis within your muscles.  This may also have longevity promoting effects.

Note:  this sort of routine is used heavily in the “Metabolic” variant of the “Body Recomp” plan.  It brings fast results, but can also cause quick burnout.  Not recommended for daily use.  Probably shouldn’t be done more than twice a week for beginners.

 

 

Resetting One’s Circadian Rhythms

Your circadian rhythm is the biological clock by which you wake, feel various levels of alertness as well as hunger, and eventually feel sleepy at night.

However we now know that circadian rhythms are tied into insulin sensitivity, brown fat activation, and may be tied to various diseases including certain types of cancer.  Disordered sleep patterns (for example, in nightshift workers) that alter and interfere with one’s circadian rhythm are tied to a variety of diseases, including obesity and cancer.  An experiment in mice showed that exposing the mice to blue light at night – which in nature they would only experience earlier in the day – turned off their natural brown fat activity, lowered their metabolism, and made them spontaneously gain fat.

Things that effect your circadian rhythm:

• light exposure
• meal timing (especially the first meal after waking)
• exercise
• cold exposure / cold thermogenesis
• melatonin supplementation

There are two optimal ways to use the CFB to fix sleep patterns at night.  The first was mentioned above – do a session an hour or two before bed, and make sure the bedroom is no more than 68 ‘F (ideally 66)  for the night.

The second option may be counter intuitive, but it involves doing a high intensity session in the morning, and may be especially effective getting “night owls” to bed earlier.  It turns out that eating, exercise, cold exposure, and/or bright blue light exposure in the morning can help reset or “pull back” one’s circadian rhythm, so that they’re appropriately tired at night and ready for bed.  Think of it as “waking you up” early.  The session should probably be at least moderate intensity.

 

 

 

CoolSculpting, Fat-Freezing, Spot Reduction, & Cold-Induced Apoptosis

NOTE:  the Cool Gut Buster is NOT recommended or endorsed for spot-reduction, fat-freezing, or apoptosis.  You may get cryoburn or discoloration on your stomach or lower back especially using Hybrid packs or if you wear against bare skin or with too little (or too thin) clothing!  Do not wear against bare skin!  There is also the condition known as paradoxical adipose hyperplasia that has occurred with a small percentage of patients who underwent the formal coolsculpting procedure.  Using the Cool Fat Burner or Cool Gut Buster to try and induce fat freezing spot reduction is not recommended, and anyone who chooses to do so, is doing it at their own risk and responsibility. This information is for educational purposes only!

Cryolipolysis, Coolsculpting, and Fat-Freezing; apoptosis is intentional, programmed cell-death.  In this case fat cell death, the spot reduction of stomach fat.

Diet and exercise usually only “drains” or empties fat cells.  You keep the same number of fat cells as you lose weight, they merely decrease in size.  Cold-induced apoptosis can actually kill the fat cells directly underneath the skin wherever the Hybrid packs are placed.  Once reabsorbed, those fat cells are gone forever.  (However if you overeat for a period of time you can create new fat cells.)

Cold-induced fat cell apoptosis is not about weight loss; it’s about cosmetic spot-reduction of fat on the stomach, love handles, and back, underneath the Cool Gut Buster (assuming the use of Hybrid packs).  However after any given session, it will take weeks (or even months) for all those dead fat cells to fully reabsorb.  Apoptosis should be viewed as a nice “bonus benefit,” but not as an actual goal itself and will probably make little visual difference until you’re around 15% BF (males) or 20% BF (females).

Note:  for apoptosis to work, you DO NOT have to wear the CGB directly on your skin.  The original Zeltic coolsculpting trials found that keeping the skin in the mid to high 30’s caused spot reduction of the fat underneath.  Later studies have shown that temps in the low to mid 40’s can also have a similar effect.  Thermocouple testing has shown the Gut Buster can maintain skin temps in the low 40’s for well over an hour, even through a T-shirt.  That is cold enough for cryolipolysis to occur.  Make sure there is no wetness or moisture underneath your Cool Gut Buster; no wet T-shirt.  Moisture may freeze and cause cryoburn.

The skin will turn pink or cherry red (for lighter complexioned users; darker complexion users should adjust accordingly).  If it turns white, or you have any pain or complications, stop immediately and consult emergency medical help.  [Consider reviewing Dr Jack Kruse’s guidelines for cold thermogenesis] Keep in mind that after an apoptosis session, your skin may be tender or even numb for a day or so.  In some cases, the numbness can last weeks.  This also occurred in the formal Zeltic cryolipolysis studies, and does not indicate nerve damage and is normal.  If you find it worrisome, just wear more clothes under the Gut Buster, use Soft packs instead of Hybrid or if need be, take a break for a few weeks. >>> Note picture:  post-CGB session, the red areas indicate where fat cell apoptosis may occur

If using for only spot-reduction some users have found benefit from only using every other day, 2-3 days per week.  Sessions are usually around 1 hour in duration.

Re: sensations — “stinging” is a very subjective term.  Most warnings say to stop if you feel “stinging” of the skin… yet this is a common sensation one may feel until the skin turns numb (~ 10 minutes).  This might be the prerequisite before numbness, redness, and apoptosis occurs.  Also note, stinging and burning are not the same!  Burning = cryoburn or worse.  Remove immediate if you feel burning.

Post-session massage:  after the session you might massage the areas by ‘kneading’ the fat for 1 minute, then swirling using the fingertips for 1 minute.  Note: in the linked study that had subjects massage their stomachs after the session, the subjects lost slightly more fat than those who did not massage afterward, and they lost it faster.  Massaging the area speeds up and potentially increases the re-absorption of the fat.  Also note that massaging the area may decrease post-session soreness that some people experience.

Possible risks and negative side effects of Gut Buster coolsculpting use:

1.  Cryoburn [solution:  monitor sensations, beware of  feeling “burning” of the skin, shift device frequently]
2.  Transitory numbness / tingling  [solution:  does not imply nerve damage, goes away within a few weeks at most]
3.  Bruising; blood rushing to skin surface after session (more common in darker complexion users)  [solution:  consider wearing more clothes underneath and not using for coolsculpting but for general cold thermogenesis and calorie burning]
4.  Frostbite  (especially if moisture on skin can freeze)  [solution:  don’t ignore sensations of burning, wear clothes underneath the vests, shift them from time to time]
5.  Post-session “ache” of fat  [solution:  massage the area after a Gut Buster session for 2 minutes; may also be reduced by actually wearing the Gut Buster longer, until it thaws (~ 2hrs, give or take) – removing the Gut Buster too soon can actually cause the ache]

Remember, it can take up to three months for the spot-reduced fat to be absorbed and removed.  This does not happen in weeks.  And if you’re consistently using the Gut Buster, you’ll be constantly re-absorbing the crystallized fat cells, removing them from your stomach area.

Here’s the spectrum of high to low effect of coolsculpting vs cryoburn risk:

• Hybrid packs against skin – high chance for apoptosis, high chance for cryoburn
• Hybrid packs against clothes – high chance for apoptosis, moderate to low chance for cryoburn
• Soft packs against skin – moderate to high chance apoptosis, moderate to low chance cryoburn
• Soft packs against shirt – low chance apoptosis, low chance cryoburn

 

Eating fish for fat-freezing?  It’s been theorized that dietary fat plays a factor in how your skin and fat cells respond to direct cold exposure.  It turns out that the cell membranes incorporate dietary fatty acids, so which fatty acids you consume might determine what type of fats compose your cell membranes.  It’s hypothesized that omega-3 fatty acids allow the skin cells to more readily resist extreme cold exposure.  So one can increase fatty fish in the diet, as well as supplement with omega-3 to potentially increase the cold adaptation of their skin, which may reduce the risk for cryoburn, achy fat, and the transitory numbness that can happen with direct contact to extreme cold.

 

 

Using the CFB as a meditation aid

Cold thermogenesis can help put one into a meditative state of awareness. Like the entry in the “Tricks & Hacks” chapter, the best way of getting “into the zone” isn’t by trying to get in the zone, but by fully immersing oneself into the task at hand.  That means letting go and throwing yourself into your sessions, and being with it moment by moment… or by dissociating from the sensations and totally letting go and ignoring them, which will also put you in the moment.  (Obviously one must still consider safety concerns; if “letting go” and “going beyond” the sensations means you allow yourself to get too cold or allow yourself to get cryoburn because you’re beyond the sensations, that is obviously not an intelligent or functional approach.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6:

Troubleshooting

Increased Appetite

The massive calorie burn of cold thermogenesis sessions can sometimes cause a temporary increase in one’s hunger.  This typically only happens after Moderate and above sessions, and then, only for an hour or so afterwards.  So for those who experience increased hunger, keep in mind this usually normalizes to regular appetite levels after a week or so.  If you are going to eat during the window of increased hunger, simply eat with a lot of ‘filler’ in your meals (lots of protein, as well as fiber, roughage, resistant starches, etc) so that you can fill up w/o adding extra calories.  See the “Quick Start” chapter for more details, and the “Fiber Shake” in the “Tricks & Hacks” chapter.

 

Ironically, some evidence implies that cold thermogenesis can help “rebalance” one’s hormone profile, including insulin sensitivity and the “hunger hormone” leptin.  This means that as one becomes more cold-adapted, that thermal loading may actually help decrease one’s hunger.   So if you are one of those who experience the temporary increase in hunger, perhaps consider starting your journey of cold adaptation to coincide with a week or two where you will be working out hard, and possibly doing some sort of muscle building “clean bulk.”  This way if you do happen to eat more, you can channel those extra calories into your workouts and not into fat storage!

 

Obesity

Higher body fat inversely correlates to brown fat and adiponectin levels.  The more fat you carry, the lower your BAT and adiponectin tend to be.  The good news is you can increase both BAT and adiponectin.  A healthier diet, less calories, exercise, and cold stress will not only help you lose weight, they can increase BAT and adiponectin, thus making it easier to further lose weight.  This is great news!  Losing weight is easy – keeping it off can be more difficult.  Cold thermogenesis can be a big help in keeping it off.

Keep in mind your calorie intake.

It typically takes ‘effort’ to become morbidly obese, in that you must eat many more extra calories to gain extra fat.  But once you carry extra fat, it takes very little calories to maintain that fat.  Yet you can still eat the foods you love if you do it strategically.  But eating thousands of extra calories a day isn’t about liking the taste of food.  That’s self-medicating with food.  That is an emotional dynamic.  Chances are you’re not actually even hungry most of the times when you eat like that.

Start making  change.  Check out our “Quick Start” at the end of this chapter to make sure you’re hitting all the basics.

 

Cold Showers 

Cold showers have gained in popularity in recent years and are a means of cold stress that everyone has access to.  However cold showers probably won’t induce cold thermogenesis to a significant degree… so should be viewed as an optional supplement to your CFB sessions for those that are so inclined.  CFB creator Eric G. only rarely takes cold showers.  They’re just not needed, and they aren’t that efficient; too brief, can be shocking to the system, not enough calorie burn, too quick and easy to warm up after the shower, cold doesn’t penetrate to the core, etc.  However one could use cold showers before using the CFB to jumpstart the session, or take the shower after, to finish off a session either immediately after, or even better, after several hours of lounging in the same, cool environment, post-CFB session.

“The difference between the right word, and almost the right word, is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”                                           — Mark Twain

“The difference between a cool shower, and a cold shower, is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”                                           — anyone who’s taken a cold shower

You don’t need a freezing cold shower to create a general thermal load.  A barely warm shower, which is to say a cool shower, is probably analogous to Casual intensity with the Cool Fat Burner.  It’s a mild calorie burn that will add up over time.

A truly cold shower if engaged long enough, can probably activate BAT and will definitely boost the metabolism for at least a short while.  Granted, you’re not going to take a 30 minute cold shower, whereas you can use the CFB for hours at a time.  Cold showers should probably be viewed as an effective supplement to longer thermal loading sessions with the CFB, or as maintenance during the off-cycle.

 

Methods

Try starting with warm to hot water for a period of time.  This not only allows for a more comfortable transition to colder temperatures, it will increase vasodilatation of the blood vessels, increasing blood flow and heat venting.  Then gradually turn the water to cool/cold.  This will allow for more heat to be pulled from the body, creating a greater thermal load (since your body was already venting heat, due to the hot water).

If the cold gets too intense, you can often return to these two less sensitive postures:  cooling the kidneys, or rinsing the face.

“Cooling the Kidneys:” face away, bend over slightly, allowing the brunt of the water to land on the lower back, over the kidneys.	Step back and out of the stream, then allow the water to pour into the face, or at least cup and splash water into face.

Both methods allow one to maintain the thermal load while momentarily decreasing intensity, before returning to the upper back and upper chest BAT zones.

Try this trick:  rub your hands over whatever area is getting hit with water. This is not to create heat via friction; when you rub your hand over the skin surface, it will “confuse” the sensory nerves, and you’ll not feel the cold for moments after.  Try it next time; you’ll be surprised how well it works. Practice slow, relaxed breathing.  Visualize breathing heat out of the pores from the area hit by the water.

Try this:  Take 3 slow breaths, while rubbing each target area:
Expose your face to the cold shower… then step back.
Expose your right arm to the water, while rubbing it.  Step back.  Repeat on the left arm.
Repeat with right, then left leg, briefly stepping back after each, while taking 3 slow breaths.
Expose your stomach, chest, and the shoulders.  Move to the back.
Finally expose the ribs and armpits.
Breathe out the sensations of cold away from your skin.  Relax.  Go into the “no-minded state” if it helps.

The cool/cold shower should last a minimum of 3 minutes.  Some cold-adapted enthusiasts take 10 minute cold showers.

“Contrast showers” have been done in athletic communities for decades.  A generic example:  go a few moments of hot water, then turn it to cold for 30-45 seconds or so… then repeat, eventually adding up to a minimum 5 minute session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7:

Exercise

Exercise can create new brown fat.  (Technically ‘beige fat,’ which is regular white fat converted to function like brown fat.)

Exercise can also increase adiponectin levels, even in obese subjects (who otherwise have lowered adiponectin levels).

Exercise can also increase “non insulin related glucose uptake” and nutrient partitioning away from fat and into muscles.  This means that when you eat (within 30-120 minutes after the workout) your body is more likely to use that food for fuel and building muscle, rather than store it as fat.  That also means lower, more stable blood glucose levels.  Remember earlier – chronically high blood glucose levels can stifle BAT activity and adiponectin levels (as well as lead to all manner of diseases).  Exercise and more muscle helps prevent that.

So there are several ways in which exercise can enhance your cold thermogenesis sessions.   And thanks to the workings of adiponectin, irisin, and the process of post-workout recovery, the Cool Fat Burner can in turn enhance your exercise.

Chapter 5:  Applied Strategies gave specific approaches to integrating exercise with Cool Fat Burner usage.

 

All forms of exercise have benefit.  Listed from lowest to highest intensity:

—  “LISS,” or low-intensity steady-state cardio (walking, light aerobics).
—  Higher intensity cardio (jogging, biking, rowing).
—  Anaerobic power endurance (circuit, station, and high intensity interval training).
—  Hypertrophy training (lifting weights for increased muscle size).
—  Power and explosive training (max effort weight lifting, plyometrics, sprints, powerlifting).

All of these activities burn calories.  Most induce positive hormonal changes.  All will help in improving body composition.  And all of these should be done from time to time.  (see “The Body Recomp Plan” chapter on this Guides website for advanced training concepts.)

 

In regards to women and weight training… 

Let’s cut to the chase:  WOMEN ALSO NEED TO DO RESISTANCE TRAINING.

Here is an interesting pic:

 

Women may not actually need to “lift heavy,” but they do need to do some sort of resistance work.  (This can be as easy as body-weight exercises done at home; see “Super Slow Reps” in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter)  It is imperative to have adequate muscle tissue.  You cannot have optimal health without having adequate muscle tissue.  And you cannot have adequate muscle tissue by only doing low intensity cardio work.  You must do some degree of resistance exercise.  This is a fact.

This does not mean one has to become a world-class bodybuilder or go into the gym throwing huge weights around.  It just means one has to challenge the muscles enough to cause adequate strength and hypertrophy gains.  This brings and entire host of health benefits.  (See “Concepts You Should Know” chapter)

 

Common response:  “But I don’t want to get too big!”  Or “I don’t want to look like those women bodybuilders!“

Answer —  You won’t.  The only reason professional bodybuilder women look huge is because they’re on steroids, insulin, growth hormone, and other performance enhancing drugs.  Think about this:  even men can’t get as big as female professional bodybuilders (unless men also use performance enhancing drugs) and men have far, far higher natural levels of testosterone.  If men who lift weights all the time don’t look like professional female bodybuilders, then obviously no woman will ever look like that either, no matter how much or how heavy they train.

Doing resistance work will not make you “big.”  And there are benefits to resistance training that you simply cannot get from other forms of exercise.

Finally keep in mind that resistance work is in many ways easier than other forms of training.  The total work time is usually far less than other training modalities.  And it usually only taxes the muscles, whereas other modes of exercise also tax the cardiovascular system.  Which is easier — feeling your muscles get pumped and moved to temporary burning and failure, the feeling of which goes away within moments after the set ends…  vs your heart and lungs pounding and burning, gasping for air, muscles burning, and so on, that one gets with cardio?

If you’re not sure how to begin, simply start in your home.  Do the “Super Slow Reps” (Hacks & Tricks chapter) to build a baseline of strength, learn proper technique to fundamental movements, and start to build your “mind muscle” connection.

For more specialized info, check out “Girls Gone Strong“

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 8:

How Long Will This Take?

This is true:

You should plan on taking your time.  Forever.  Health and fitness isn’t something you’re going to do for a month or two, and then quit.  This is something one should learn to enjoy for a lifetime.

So pace yourself.  Go at a sustainable speed.  And learn how to enjoy it.  Otherwise… why bother?  Enjoy your diet, enjoy your exercise, and enjoy cold thermogenesis.  Enjoy improving and enhancing yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9:

“I can’t get cold enough”

There are 2 probable reasons why you can’t get cold enough:

1.  Too much mass
2.  You’re not really trying

 

People who have a lot of physical mass, be it fat or muscle, will often have trouble reaching higher intensities of cold thermogenesis.  They simply can’t touch their core body temperature from external cold stimulus.  If the reason is fat mass, then dieting, movement, and casual cold thermogenesis can help you gradually decrease the amount of body fat; as you do, you’ll be able to reach higher intensities of CT as you transform your body composition.

If you have too much muscle mass, there’s not much to do, since you obviously don’t want to lose muscle; you’ll have to use CT for its other benefits; post workout recovery, glucose uptake, injury management, rest, relaxation, and sleep enhancement.  Besides, if you have that much muscle, then you probably already have a boosted resting metabolism.

As for “not really trying…” even Wim Hof can induce shivering.  If you really want to induce shivering, you will.

In our recent randomized group experiment at UCSD, every single subject was able to induce and maintain shivering for an hour.  That was using only Soft packs, drinking only 2 glasses of water, and sitting in a 70’F room.

If you wear the Cool Fat Burner and Cool Gut Buster with minimal clothing (not endorsed or recommended for use against bare skin; easy to get cryoburn, bruising, etc), reduce room temp, and guzzle down ice water, even take a pre-session cold shower… you will induce shivering.

About drinking ice water:  Put 2-3 huge glasses of water in your freezer.  Cycle them and take one out when it’s frosting over.  Take 5-6 huge gulps of ice water at a time, gulping down the water to get the cold “down in” and not letting in warm up on the way down.   The CFB and CGB cool you from the outside, the ice water cools the inside.

One can easily go through a gallon of super cold ice water in a single CFB session.  Relax and experience the cold; if you’re clenching your muscles or doing other cheats to keep yourself from chilling, you’re obviously generating ‘artificial’ heat so as to negate CT from kicking in.

RELAXATION IS KEY.  If you’re not relaxed, you’re not trying.

 

 

 

Chapter 10:

“HELP, I’M NOT LOSING WEIGHT!!!”

So it’s already been shown through numerous studies that high level cold exposure causes a massive metabolic boost and calorie burn.  And the Cool Fat Burner has been shown in a number of third party experiments that it can boost calorie burning upwards of 300% at higher intensities.

That means you’re burning hundreds of calories after an hour or so.

 

 

So if someone finds they’re not losing weight, what is happening?

 

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS:

Did you know that most people underestimate how much food they actually eat?

Did you know that even registered dieticians underestimate how much food they eat?  (And another study.  And another.)

Did you know that when people restrict calories or increase exercise, they often tend to reduce their daily activities or increase food intake to compensate and nullify weight loss?

And of course there is this YouTube video, which mirrors what so many claim:

VIDEO:  WOMAN BLAMES SLOW METABOLISM FOR LACK OF WEIGHT LOSS

 

Yes, some people have metabolic and hormonal profiles that make it trickier to lose weight.  That just means it will take a little more time.  They still just have to do what everyone else has to do to lose weight…it may just take a little longer to reach the end line.  (As a side-note, people who more easily pack on fat can almost always have an easier time adding muscle, so they also have advantages.)

The Cool Fat Burner has been proven in several university experiments to potentially burn hundreds of calories an hour.  If everything else stays the same at an isocaloric, maintenance level – meaning you would otherwise neither gain nor lose weight – then you add the Cool Fat Burner to your daily routine, you will lose fat.

If you aren’t losing fat, here are the only possible reasons:

1.  You’re not really using the Cool Fat Burner the way you think you are
   1. You’re not going as intense as you should, or as long as you should, or as frequently as you should
2.  You are losing fat, but you’re also gaining muscle
   1. The Cool Fat Burner has been shown to potentially increase both adiponectin and irisin; these hormones may help build muscle, so while you’re burning fat, you’re gaining muscle.  Ignore the scale, go by the tape measure, or you performance in the gym
3.  You’re compensating somewhere else to negate the calorie burn
   1. You’re eating more food, you’re moving around less, your workouts became less strenuous, etc.

 

That’s it.  There are no other possible explanations.  EVERY SINGLE TIME a person is not losing weight, it’s because there is no overall caloric deficit.  There has not once been a single example or study that shows otherwise.  (That’s not to say there might be more unusual factors at play; for example, hormonal imbalances that negatively effects one’s resting metabolism would make it harder to lose weight)

And remember, real fat-loss is a slow process.

Most people should look to burn at most around 1lb fat per week.  Your body can only mobilize and burn so much fat in a given period of time.  Try and burn more calories than that amount, and you’ll burn muscle along with fat.  When most people “lose weight,” a lot of what they initially lose is water, and upwards of half of what they ultimately lose can be muscle instead of fat.

Best case scenario, they’ll end up “skinny fat.”  Worse case, they’ll give up on everything, rebound back, and gain even more weight, since they lost muscle, have a lower metabolism, and what used to be isocaloric maintenance level of calories is now a surplus.  Don’t do that.  Slow and steady wins the race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 10:

It All Comes Together

So cold thermogenesis can activate brown fat, increase adiponectin levels, increase irisin, reduce systemic inflammation, boost the immune system, help build muscle, burn massive amount of fat, rebalance hormones, help recover from workouts, and help with sleep, meaning more rejuvenation and a more energetic day.

Workouts also burn calories and fat, build muscle, and boost the metabolism.  And also increase brown fat, adiponectin, and irisin.  And increase overall alertness and energy.

Proper diet can enhance factors in cold stress and expedite the process, and fuel your workouts and increase your recovery, and of course can help optimize overall health.

All three work together and enhance one another.  Use all three for optimum health.

 

 

 

 

 

QUICKSTART CHECKLIST:

These are all strategies to get you started.  If you already have methods that work, then obviously keep doing them.

 

Exercise & Activity

• If you’re new to exercise or have taken time off, you can use the “Super Slow Reps” workout under ‘Exercise’ in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter for a month or so until you’re ready to progress to something more demanding.

• Try to consciously increase NEAT – “non-exercise activity thermogenesis” – in your everyday life.  NEAT is all activity that is not exercise.  Stand instead of sit.  Park farther away and walk to your destination.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Make it a regular, common practice as part of your everyday routine, not something special or odd.  Grow accustomed to it.  And be consciously aware not to reduce other activity as you increase your NEAT.

• Those already experienced or currently used to exercise can do whatever works for them.  They can also read the “Advanced Concepts” chapter and the “Body Recomp” plan and try incorporating those principles into their routines, or many of the exercise variations listed in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter.

 

Cool Fat Burner & cold thermogenesis

• You should do something every single day.  At least one of the three:  diet, exercise, or cold thermogenesis.  So at the very least, use your Cool Fat Burner on days you can’t workout or eat as you otherwise should.

• You can obviously go up to daily use, and with your doctor’s consent, go to hours-long-sessions, even up into high intensity and burn hundreds of calories an hour.

• Use the CFB / CGB after cheat meals.

 

DIET

Drinks…

• No longer drink your calories.  No juices, no soda, nothing with sugar or any calories.  No milk.  Only water and coffee.

• Zero-calorie diet drinks are allowed if they’re not problematic or don’t cause compensatory eating or cravings.  Unsweetened tea is also allowed.

 

Protein…

• Try to get at least 30-40 gm of protein per meal.  It’s nearly impossible to overeat protein and gain weight.

• 30 grams of protein is around the same volume as the palm of an adult hand, or a deck of cards.  This is a quick and easy way to make sure you’re getting at least 30 grams per meal.

 

 A note on vegetarian diets:  you may need to eat more protein to build and maintain muscle compared to consuming animal sources of protein.

 

 

Carbohydrates…

• Start by removing all breads, cereals, pastas, and rice from your diet.  (konjac noodles are a zero calorie noodle substitute one can use)

• Eat legumes.  Beans and lentils.

• You can include fibrous veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, onions, cabbage, peppers, and asparagus.  You can also do salad, but try and use zero calorie dressings or make your own by mixing balsamic vinegar and mustard.

• Use fruit and berries as dessert.  Can also use zero calorie toppings to go with those fruit.  (0-cal Marshmallow dip & Caramel dip)

• You can also use many of the “PSMF snacks” as desert (“Hacks & Tricks” chapter)

• Introduce prebiotics such as Greek yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi.

 

Fats…

• Focus on healthy fats from sources like eggs, avocados, fish, and nuts.

• Cook with olive oil.

 

Additional Diet tricks…

• Eating enough to physically feel full is important physiologically, as it stimulates the vagus nerve.  Try to have a physically full stomach at least one meal a day.  Use the Fiber Shake, lots of protein, legumes, and cruciferous veggies to physically fill up the stomach on a daily basis.
• Cheat meals:  have 1 large or 2 smaller cheat meals per week.  This can be just a ‘regular’ desert at the end of a meal fitting the parameters in this checklist.  This should be a ‘real’ desert, and not one of the PSMF treats, or zero calorie jello, or some other low/no calorie snack.  Cheat foods should be the real thing.  Remember:  one extreme cheat meal can wipe out a deficit built up over the week.

• • Make sure you exercise or do a Cool Fat Burner session either an hour or so before or after your cheat meal.  Or you can use the strategy described earlier in the guide – exercise before > have cheat meal > CFB session 1-2 hours after

• • • Enlightened, Halo Top, and Arctic Zero ice cream are low calorie choices for ice cream lovers, and can work as a small desert for a small (2 per week) cheat meal.

• • • Fruit bowls, Strawberry crepes, or Oatmeal (or Oatbran) with 50/50 Splenda/brown sugar is a great, “clean” cheat snack.  (see ‘Hacks & Tricks’ chapter)

• • • Use sugar free gum to help deal with sweet cravings.

• • • Use the Fiber Shake before certain meals (especially cheat meals) to help fill you up and reduce insulin spikes.  (see “Hacks & Tricks” chapter)
    • Adding 1/2 cup of oats to a protein shake (blended) adds prebiotic elements, can lower LDL, and adds a creamy consistency to the shake

This Quickstart Checklist isn’t meant to be followed indefinitely.  After a month or so, one may want to integrate other methods or transition altogether to new systems of diet or exercise.  One may begin to integrate principles from the Body Recomp plan for the fastest results.

This chapter describes a bunch of trick, hacks, and shortcuts, “odds and ends” that don’t necessarily fit neatly anywhere else, or material that is referenced in many other places and has many applications, and is placed here as a sort of reference database of tricks and hacks.   See “The best products in one place” chapter for links to the products I use here.

 

DIET

• Fiber Shake
• Protein milkshakes and PSMF snacks
• For educational purposes only!  The ECA stack – not recommending for use
• Supplements that actually work

 

CT / CFB

• How to use the CFB to work your butt muscles

 

EXERCISE

• Special, unique, and unusual techniques

 

CIRCADIAN HEALTH

• Melatonin
• Late night blue light exposure
• Grounding

 

GETTING IN THE ZONE

• You cannot get in the zone by trying to get in the zone
• How to always have a great workout

 

DIET

Everything under the ‘Diet’ section is quick and easy.  This is not a list of elaborate recipes.  Those can be found anywhere online.  There will be no unrealistic, long and complicated recipes here.  This is all fast, simple, and easy, have very few steps, and most have very few ingredients.  These are all recipes  you can adhere to.

 

Fiber Shake

The “Fiber Shake” can make cutting calories effortless.  It is a unique mix I use on fat burning metabolic cutting days.  It contains a mix of fibers and resistant starches and filler materials.  I take it before PSMF meals, especially protein shakes.  It serves several purposes:

• To add bulk into the stomach, to coat the stomach, to help trigger satiety vagus nerve stimuli and fill one up and blunt hunger
• To minimize insulin spikes, not only for reduced hunger and stable energy levels, but for longevity practices
• To directly enhance and strengthen the microbiome gut flora, which may help enhance insulin sensitivity, neurotransmitter production, and the immune system as a whole

Please note:  this shake is serious.  It works.  Because it actually works, that means it can have ‘side effects’ if you use too much for wherever you’re currently at.  This is because we all have different levels of gut biome health.  Therefore you should start with adding only 1 or 2 ingredients, at very small doses, and see how you respond.  Depending on your particular gut flora makeup, some ingredients could have different effects compared to others.

Remember – the gut flora microbiome is all the microorganism within our bodies, mainly in the gastrointestinal tract, that influence metabolism, neurotransmitter production, and make up a large part of our immune system.

There can be a wide range and difference from one person’s gut flora to another.  The various foods found in the Fiber Shake feed different types of gut flora.  If you don’t have enough of a particular type of helpful bacteria and/or you put in too much of a particular ingredient it could cause symptoms like cramps, bloating, or excessive gas.  This is largely due to the bacteria you have working in overdrive to try and ferment, digest, and break down the components in the shake.  In time, you can build up your gut flora’s capacity to process the components in the shake… and you can adjust the makeup of the shake as you go.  These positive changes in your gut flora may correlate to a host of health benefits that go far beyond mere weight loss.

 

Ingredients:

• Apple Cider Vinegar, with the “mother” included
• Psyllium powder
• Potato starch
• Inulin
• Oat Bran
• Chia Seeds

• Arabinogalactan (this one can be pricey, so it’s optional)

• Guar gum
• Xanthan gum

 

Optional:

• Ionic fizz mixes
• greens mix
• Xylitol (artificial sweetener, prebiotic)

 

 

Details, dosages, and how to mix:

Start with a mixer cup, and add a few inches of water.

Apple Cider Vinegar:  the common recommended dosage to ACV is usually 1-3 tablespoons.  I usually just pour and eyeball the amount.  Remember to shake it up beforehand, to get the ‘mother’ prebiotic material into the suspension and thus, into your mix.  ACV has been shown to blunt insulin spikes.  On cutting days, this can help blunt the insulin spike from the protein shake, which might help with longevity practices and keep overall energy levels more stable.  Also great to take before a carb refeed cheat meal.

Psyllium powder.  I do 1-2 tablespoons.  I get the orange flavor.  Along with the ACV and the optional ionic fizz, it gives a pleasant, tangy orange flavor.

Potato starch.  This is one of the “wild card” ingredients that you should start light on, and slowly increase over time.  I usually do 1-2 tablespoons.  I’d recommend starting at no more than 1 teaspoon.  If you’re excessively gassy after the shake, it’s probably your underdeveloped flora working overtime to process the potato starch.  (Remember, we actually don’t produce gas ourselves; our gut flora does, via fermenting and breaking down these materials.)  Hopefully they’ll reproduce and/or become more efficient eating up that potato starch, and in the process bring all the other benefits that a healthy gut biome can offer.

Inulin.  Never effected my guts the way potato starch did.  Usually do 1 tablespoon.

Oat Bran.  A teaspoon should be enough.  A little extra fiber.

Arabinogalactan.  Kind of just throw it in for “good measure.”  Known for awesome immune system support.  Usually 1 teaspoon worth.  (usually comes with its own scooper)

Xylitol.  Sprinkle in.  The sugar alcohols can really work some people’s guts, so may want to go easy on this, or even use it in place of sugar in other mixes instead of in this Fiber Shake.  (see Strawberry Crepes below)

At this point you should mix the concoction, before adding either/both of the next two ingredients.

Guar gum & Xanthan gum.  These two fiber like substances can have serious satiety-inducing effects by inducing a feeling of fullness.  They can help fill you up.  And feed your gut flora.  The problem here is that this stuff can turn gelatinous really fast.  This is why one should mix their shake up, add guar / xanthan, then quickly shake it again before starting to drink it down.  If you wait too long, you’ll end up with pudding in your cup and have to spoon it out.  I’d recommend only around ¼ to ½ a teaspoon.  This stuff goes a long way.

OPTIONAL:  ionic fizz.  This is a brand name of mixes that adds minerals.  This may only be necessary if you find your muscles cramping.  This would especially be applicable to those who do the “Metabolic” variant of the Body Recomp plan (see Body Recomp chapter), as that plan can quickly drain electrolytes.  Also note that on fat burning cutting days, one may also become depleted of minerals since it is a PSMF day.  The ionic fizz flavors tend to go well with the orange psyllium flavor and the tangy ACV flavor.

OPTIONAL:  greens mix.  Not mixed with the fiber shake, but taken after (and before the protein shake or PSMF meal)  Again for those who may feel depleted of nutrients.  Various greens mix may help you get what you’re missing.  It may also help fill you up on metabolic cutting days.  Typical greens mixes are usually around $1 per serving.

After drinking your Fiber Shake, wait a few minutes before eating (either your PWO carb refeed on Anabolic days, or before your PSMF meal on fat burning days.)  If you’re going to take probiotics, take them with this shake.  They can ‘latch on’ to the various fiber and starch molecules and travel down to the intestines where they can actually do some good.

 

 

Adaptation time of the gut microbiome:

In high school I started eating beans as a cheap source of fiber and protein.  I increased bean consumption in college.  15 years later when the 4 Hour Body came out (slow carb diet) I got back into eating a lot of legumes.  I probably did that for a few years before starting any components of this Fiber Shake.  That means I had years of time for my gut biome to adjust to eating beans and lentils and legumes… and still when I started the Fiber Shake, it worked my guts pretty good.  Because it was building up a stronger, healthier, more robust gut biome beyond what even eating legumes daily had built up.

The point here is that many readers will not be able to jump right into high dosages.  You should slowly build up your gut flora over time with this shake.

Also note on ‘Adaptive’ days of the Body Recomp plan, we recommend eating a lot of fiber and legumes as part of the PWO refeed.

 

Protein Shakes / Milkshakes

These are self-explanatory.  Protein shakes / milkshakes are almost a requirement if only due to efficiency.  It’s the easiest way to get the fastest and leanest amount of protein.  Very helpful during cutting days.

As addressed in other chapters, different protein molecules digest, absorb, and induce “muscle protein synthesis” at different rates.  Therefore it’s usually advisable to have a mix of protein types.

Whey digests the fastest.  Casein is much slower.  Egg protein should be the slowest of all.  (chart borrowed from BodyRecomposition.com)

Protein	Absorption Rate (g/hour)
Raw Egg Protein *	1.4
Cooked Egg Protein *	2.9
Pea Protein	3.5
Milk Protein	3.5
Soy Protein Isolate	3.9
Casein Isolate	6.1
Whey Isolate	8-10

Also addressed elsewhere (“Advanced Concepts”) is the minimal dosage to induce MPS, which is usually 20-30 grams.   But depending on the individual (age and training experience) and what they’re doing that day (building muscle (anabolic day with a caloric surplus) or burning fat (metabolic day with a caloric deficit) will dictate if you need more than 20-30 grams in one meal.

I never eat a shake (or a meal) less than 40 grams, and often go up to 50+ grams, unless I’m in a significant caloric surplus and therefore don’t need as much protein.

You can  find every flavor imaginable.  Here is an example shake how I make them:

 

Add some milk (or almond milk) and water to blender.  Add ice.  Blend to make slush.
In a separate mixer, add a little liquid (milk, almond milk, or water) so that the powder doesn’t stick to the bottom of the mixer cup.
Add 1 scoop strawberry whey.  (25 gm protein)
Add 1 scoop vanilla casein.  (25 gm protein)
Hand shake and then add to the ice/milk/water already in the blender.

Add some strawberries.  (don’t necessarily have to be frozen).
Optional:  Add a banana (creaminess and consistency)

Optional:  Add a slight amount of either guar or xanthan gum.  (be very conservative with these; too much and it will become foamy)

Blend and enjoy.  50 grams of fast and slow acting protein for an optimal muscle protein synthesis spike to help maintain muscle while losing fat.  This is the closest I’ve found to making an essentially protein-only shake that has the taste and consistency of an actual strawberry milkshake.

 

I’ve also experimented using butterscotch, caramel, chocolate, and vanilla flavored protein powders, and adding flavor-matching zero-calorie syrups from Walden Farms, or minimal amounts of pudding powder mix or cocoa powder where it fits.

The key is to add the flavor from different sources.  The protein powder can be flavored.  The syrup.  Any real fruit or powder (cocoa for example) that adds to the flavor.  This makes the overall taste and texture far more robust than simply relying only on the flavor of the protein powder.

So now you can have vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, and strawberry protein-only shakes that have the same consistency and taste as the real thing.

Use zero-calorie syrups and flavorings linked in the “The best products in one place” chapter.

 

PSMF snacks & meals

Here are just a few of my favorites.  These are quick and simple.  There are no long ingredients list, no long cooking instructions.  Everything here can be made with a few basic ingredients, in a minute or two.  Again, these are pretty much protein-only, and great to replace a meal or to be used on metabolic fat burning ‘cutting’ days.  All of these have enough protein to induce MPS and serve as a ‘meal’ and have little to no carbs or fat.

Remember, the prime goals of the metabolic day, especially if doing a PSMF are:

• to have a massive caloric deficit through diet and Cool Fat Burner use; ideally at least ½ a pound of fat burned in one day (over 1500 calories)
• have a large amount of protein to preserve every bit of muscle while in the deficit (at least 1 gm per pound bodyweight)
• to deplete muscle glycogen so as to prepare for the huge PWO carb refeed the next day (“Day 1 Anabolic”)

So if you’re going all the way for muscle glycogen depletion, you should always go for the no-carb options given.  Otherwise, low carb is fine, as you’ll still have a massive deficit and burn a lot of fat.

 

Low carb chicken noodle soup… or Alfredo… or Spaghetti

All three recipes start by taking a boneless chicken breast(s), cutting it into small pieces, and seasoning with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano as you fry it.  Then adding zero-calorie shirataki noodles and zero calorie sauces, along with mushrooms, onions, peas, etc.

 

Chicken noodle soup

Start with regular chicken noodle soup and add the chicken breasts.  But if you want 0 carbs, check below.

Optional:  add zero calorie shirataki noodles to the soup for more noodles and filler.  The konjac noodles will also serve as a prebiotic.

Flavor the chicken with salt, garlic powder, and oregano as you fry it.

Zero-calorie shirataki (“konjac”) noodles —

 

Zero-carb-option –

Start with chicken bone broth in place of store-bought chicken noodle soup.  Then flavor and add all ingredients as before.  Chicken, mushrooms, onions, and shirataki noodles.  Garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano on the chicken and in the broth as needed.

Keep in mind, a person could almost drink that entire box of bone broth as their meal replacement.  It offers 32 gm of protein!  Along with the chicken, this brings a massive amount of protein to the meal…which is exactly what one needs on a huge caloric deficit fat burning day.

 

 

Alfredo

Fry up the chicken.  Season with garlic powder and salt.  Also fry up some bacon (2-3 strips).  I like to over-fry the bacon and rinse with water to minimize fat content .  Crumble up the bacon into small pieces.

Add the chicken and bacon to the bowl along with konjac noodles.

Add parsley over the whole dish.

Now simply add Walden Farms zero calorie Alfredo sauce to the mix.

 

Spaghetti

Again make the chicken, but also add mushrooms to the chicken mix, frying/steaming it together.  Some may want to add sweet onions or even peppers (add them later, as they can burn quickly).

Add the chicken, mushrooms, onions, and peppers to the bowl along with konjac noodles.

Add salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder.

Now simply add Walden Farms Spaghetti sauce to the mix.

 

 

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW FAST, SIMPLE, and EASY THIS IS:
3 ingredients.  Chicken, shiritaki noodles, and seasoning.  10 minutes later, it’s ready to go.  High protein, zero carb, zero fat.  PSMF meal.  (that’s diet soda)

 

 

Brownie

Add 1-2 eggs.  Stir them up.

Add 1-2 scoops chocolate protein powder.  Can be whey or casein or a combo.

It can be tricky to ‘mix’ this stuff up, as it will be like a thick paste.  Might have to mash it with the back of a spoon to get it to mix right.

Microwave for roughly 1 minute.

It will rise and taste very much like a brownie.

 

 

Peanut Butter cream

Take some PB2 Peanut Butter powder.  (~ 2 tablespoons)

Add 1-2 scoops vanilla protein powder (ideally 1 whey, 1 casein)

Add some milk, or some almond milk.

You now have peanut butter slurry.  Tastes like peanut butter fudge.

 

Now spread the slurry over the brownie

Combining the two gives you a brownie with peanut butter icing.  (considering cutting the protein in half for each if you are adding the slurry to the brownie, as that would be 100 grams!)

 

Hot vanilla slurry

Similar to the protein-brownie, but use vanilla powder, and don’t cook to completion.

1 scoop vanilla whey, 1 scoop vanilla casein, 1 egg, and enough milk (or water) for medium consistency, in a large bowl

Microwave long enough to start to cook the outer edges, but allow the center to be hot and gooey.  Can throw some berries on top.

 

 

Protein powder pancakes

There are all sorts of ingredients one can mix up to make protein pancakes.  Let’s stick with the most basic (and with the least calories).

Add 1-2 eggs.  Stir them up.

Add 1-2 scoops of protein powder, again mixing whey and casein.

Add milk or almond milk or water to give volume and consistency.

Optional additional pancake ingredients:

• cinnamon (flavor and potentially adds insulin sensitivity)
• guar gum / xanthan gum (prebiotic, adds volume to the pancakes)
• fibrous berries (blueberries, raspberries, etc)
• coconut flour (for low-carbers)
• buckwheat flour (protein and complex carbs)
• oats (complex carbs, prebiotic)

You can use Walden Farms zero-calorie pancake syrup for the pancakes.

 

Bonus – No fat carb-refeed deserts

Crepes

Technically speaking, carb refeeds should be low or no fat.  The problem is, most of the foods people want to use as their cheat meal carb refeed has both a lot of fats and carbs.  Think of all the best deserts – cakes, pies, donuts, ice cream, cookies, etc – they all have a lot of both sugar and fat.  I also tend to use ‘regular’ junk food as my carb refeeds.  It works, but it’s technically not ideal.

One of my favorite carb refeeds that has NO fat is simple, strawberry crepes.  This will not have any protein, unless you make marshmallow fluff from protein powder, but that’s a longer process than allowed with these quick and simple snacks.

Lay out a crepe.  Cut up strawberries.  Sprinkle xylitol.  Put a smattering of zero-calorie marshmallow fluff on them.  Wrap it up and eat!

Moderate carbs to help refill glycogen and boost leptin and thyroid.  No fat whatsoever.  It is literally impossible for this meal to be stored as fat, especially if it’s part of a glycogen refilling carb refeed.  Eat as many of these as you want!

Pita & Honey

Simple and perfect for a carb refeed side-dish.

Oatbran

Not only a great carb refeed snack, but contains fiber.  Add 50/50 splenda/brown sugar.  Sweet and filling.

 

Here is an example of those in one, large PWO carb refeed meal:

 

Honorable mention:   – Xylitol gum

• 0 calories
• Can give a burst of sweet taste to help ride out and fight cravings
• Can be a life-saver on metabolic fat burning days
• Chewing can help with nervous energy from ECA stack
• Xylitol can help protect teeth

 

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY! – The ECA Stack

ECA stands for “ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin.”  It is a potent weight loss tool.

When I was in college in the mid-90’s, I heard about people combining coffee and ephedrine as a weight loss aid.  I also heard that some people apparently died using it, and that it could affect heart function.  I have a family history of heart issues, and I even had atrial fibrillation in the past, so I steered clear.

A few decades later, I’m getting back in shape and doing a lot of cold thermogenesis.  My heart issues have gone away (adiponectin from CFB use?) and I’m working out again.  Then I ran across a thread on the Lyle McDonald forums talking about the ECA stack.

According to many sources, the ECA stack is completely safe if used properly.  Apparently the only people who ever died using it, supposedly used too much, and/or they had a history of heart problems, and/or they used it while dehydrated, and/or they were exercising in excessively hot environments, and/or they got their ECA stack from herbal equivalents, and/or they were also using other drug while on the ECA stack.  Apparently there has never once been a single case of any significant health problem when using the ECA stack properly.

The primary benefit of the ECA stack is its ability to stifle appetite.  It also causes roughly a 5-7% metabolic boost.  Also if you drink coffee as your source of caffeine (instead of taking caffeine pills) you get all the health benefits of coffee.  Also people often report back better workouts while using the ECA stack, probably because of increased focused and pain management from the stimulatory effect.

The addition of aspirin to the stack is as a blood thinner.  Caffeine plus ephedrine can cause a thickening of the blood, so aspirin is added to counter that effect.  Some also add fish oil to their EC stack, as it can also thin the blood.

Now at this point, ephedrine could no longer be purchased in its pure form, since it’s used as a component in making the illegal drug crystal meth.  So those who were doing the ECA stack would often get something like Bronkaid which contains ephedrine in the recommended amounts.

The advice as always is:  start small and work up to the recommended dose.

NOTE:  there are also herbal substances containing caffeine and ephedrine, or similar molecules that have similar effects.  Those herbal versions are not recommended under any circumstance.

 

So the stack and dosages work like this:

Caffeine                               Ephedrine                           Aspirin (and/or fish oil)

200 mg                                  24mg                                     81 mg  (baby aspirin)

 

Someone just starting should probably use just half that amount.

A cup of coffee has around 100 mg of caffeine.
One Bronkaid has 25 mg of ephedrine.
One baby aspirin has 81 mg of aspirin.  (or take 4-6 Omega 3 Fish Oil in place of aspirin)

The recommended usage is to take the stack every 4 hours.  That’s far too much for me.  I take it just once in the morning on cutting days, no later than 10am, or it will affect my sleep that night.  I typically only take it on metabolic fat burning days, which would be once every 4^th day on the Clean Bulk variant of the Body Recomp plan.  I’ll use it more on the Metabolic variant.

Ephedrine does not develop tolerance.  But caffeine does (as coffee lovers know).  The typical advice is to take it for a number of weeks (say 8 weeks) then cycle off for at least 2-4 weeks.  Interestingly it’s also been shown that the efficacy of ECA can actually increase the more you consistently use it, the reverse of tolerance.  Some people also chew nicotine gum with the ECA stack.

I also take it with green tea extract and diet green or black tea (the drink on the right).  Some evidence has shown that excessive green tea consumption can mess with thyroid levels (mouse study), so I’ll typically mix the tea with a lot of water, and try not to go over 2-3 cups (of just tea) for the day.  And sometimes will chew a little nicotine gum, but only for a minute or two, otherwise the gum will make me nauseous.

I don’t like being depending on anything.  So I never take it every single day, and as mentioned above, usually only take it on extreme fat burning days.  In the Clean Bulk variant that is every 4^th day.  On the Metabolic variant, it can be 3-4 out of every 5 days.

It’s also been shown that adding the ECA with a meal can draw out the effect; it won’t be as pronounced, but will last longer.  This means you can take it with a protein shake on PSMF cutting days.  This may also make it easier to take the aspirin (as opposed to taking on an empty stomach)

 

Will go into more detail and show applications in the Body Recomp chapter.

 

 

Supplementation

Supplementation is by definition, that which supplements or adds to your diet.  Most supplements are already found in food or in the body, but at low amounts.  It may not be practical to eat enough food to get the same amounts we can get through formal supplementation.  We will only address supplements here that are proven to work.

 

Protein powder

The easiest and fastest way to get the leanest protein.  Especially helpful on PSMF cutting days.

Should typically use a mix of fast and slow digesting proteins.  Whey plus casein is the most common option.

 

Creatine             

Proven to increase muscular size and strength.  Has no drawbacks.  Is completely safe.  Creatine offers fuel to the ATP high energy system during intense, heavy exercise.

There is no need to ‘load’ creatine.  Simply take 2-3 grams a day, usually with anything that spikes insulin.  That could be a protein shake in the morning, it could be with a carb refeed.  Don’t take it with no carb meals unless that’s all you’re eating that day.

 

Omega-3

Omega 3 fatty acids are typically found as fish oil.  Fish convert algae and other foods they eat into the omega 3 acids in their body.  It is thought that having adequate amounts of fish in the diet can be helpful with cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity, and reduce systemic inflammation.

Note: not all Omega 3 sources are equal.  For example, many use soy as a substrate.  Soy may have hormonal effects and is not ideal in a supplement.

I’ll typically take 4-6 Omega 3 pills (2-3 grams) in the morning, along with Vitamin D.

 

Vitamin D

Our bodies convert sunlight into vitamin D in our bodies… but many of us do not get enough direct sunlight to make enough vitamin D, which is to say, most of us are clinically deficient of vitamin D.

It is usually better to get vitamins from the original sources, in this case, sunlight.  Since sunlight can also normalize circadian rhythms, this is the best option.   But if you can’t get enough sunlight – which for most would probably be a good 10-20 minutes of exposure to much of the body – then you may want to consider taking vitamin D supplements.

I usually do around 5000IU per day, usually in the morning, with my Omega 3 fish oil and any other fats (fats in coffee, some milk in protein shake, or egg, bacon, sausage breakfat), since vitamin D is fat-soluble and cannot be absorbed unless it is taken with fats.

 

Pre-Workout

I’ve grown to love pre-workout mixes.  I’ve tried quite a few.  Pre-workout drinks are typically taken around 20 minutes before your workout begins (“Begins” means when you actually do your first exercise).  They usually last a good 40 minutes or so, before beginning to taper off.

The main ingredient in pre-workout mixes is caffeine, with other substances that may help with certain types of workouts.  A pre-workout mix should help with focus, intensity, endurance, and may also help the muscles perform slightly better.

Ingredients you should look for:

• Caffeine
  • This is the most important ingredient. Should have around 300 mg per mix

Honorable mention:

• Beta-Alanine
  • May help with sets lasting 1-2 minutes in length
• Citruline
  • May help increase work capacity
• Agmatine
  • May help speed up fat burning and weight loss
• Leucine
  • Amino acid that can activate mTOR and induce muscle protein synthesis
  • MPS activation will probably only be helpful if done while there are still amino acids in the bloodstream, thus the leucine should be timed as we have it on the MPS chart earlier in this chapter under ‘Diet’
• Arginine
  • May help with HIIT sessions

Probably the best pre-workout mixes I’ve used is C4, while adding Citrulline, Agmatine, and Leucine from a bulk supplier.  See “The best products in one place” chapter.

 

 

Melatonin

Melatonin should be on everyone’s supplement list.  We now know that circadian rhythms are tied to more than just our wake and sleep patterns, but to appetite, energy levels, insulin sensitivity and more.  Disrupted circadian patterns are related to everything from obesity to dementia disorders to cancer.

Your body does not build tolerance to melatonin.  It’s safe to take indefinitely.

I use 3 mg every night around 20 minutes before I intend to be asleep.

(See the ‘Startup Guide’ for more info on melatonin and circadian rhythms)

 

 Fiber Shake

Addressed above.

 

ECA stack

Addressed above.

 

Aspirin

The tide keeps going back and forth with aspirin.  Some say it is preventative for heart disease, inflammation, and certain types of cancer.  Then others say that the risks of aspirin – internal bleeding due to its effects of thinning the blood – may outweigh potential benefits.

Ultimately it’s probably depends on many factors.  How old are you?  Do you have a history (or family risk) of heart disease or stroke or cancer?

I personally take aspirin when I do the ECA stack, and often at least the day after.  I also spend a lot of time at high-elevation locations, which can have a ‘thickening’ effect on the blood, so I often take aspirin for that as well.  Finally I have a family history of heart disease and metabolic disorder.

I frequently take mini doses of aspirin (80 to 160 mg – I buy regular aspirin 325 mg, then use a pill cutter and divide it into halves or fourths for my daily dosage)

 

Collagen / Glycine

For anyone with any joint issues, especially any tendonopathies, the collagen and glycine combo is a necessity.  Take around 15 mg collagen and 3 mg glycine around 30-45 minutes before any workout or rehab work.  Also a good idea to take it with 250 mg Vit C.  Directly increases and incorporates collagen into tendons (the ones being exercised during that session).

 

 

How to use the Cool Fat Burner to work your butt muscles

Want bigger, stronger glutes?  This one is really simple… yet most would never figure this out on their own.

It took me literally thousands of Cool Fat Burner sessions at hardcore, high intensity, before a ‘lucky break’ allowed me to figure this one out.

The key here is to have already pre-fatigued your glutes with prior exercise… and then later do a STANDING Cool Fat Burner session at hardcore, high intensity.  It’s the only way to use cold thermogenesis to activate the glutes.  Sitting, reclining, lying down… these don’t allow the glutes to be engaged.  Yet that is where most will do their CFB sessions.  It’s how I did all of my sessions for years.  So one has to be standing.  And it has to be at hardcore intensity (near shivering, into shivering).

But first you must pre-fatigue the glutes with exercise.  So do a good, hard workout that hits the glutes.

Then later that day (or even the next day) do a CFB session where you’re standing and inducing at least occasional shivering.  You’ll feel it in your glutes as though you were working them out!  Do it for an hour or so, and your glutes will be spent!

Here are a few favorites of mine for working the glutes:

• deadlifts
• kettlebell work (swings, snatches, etc)
• back squats
• glute bridges / raises
• hyperextensions, focusing on the glutes

Have your post workout meal.

Then later that night, do a standing CFB session, being sure to induce shivering and keep your glutes relaxed, so that they too can shiver.  It’s quite an unusual, even comical experience the first time.  Most human beings have not felt their glutes shivering.

In fact depending on how intense your workout was, you may want to wait until the next day to do the standing CFB session, as it may be too much work for your glutes to do it on the same day as the workout, especially if those are new exercises to you.

 

 

EXERCISE

Special exercises, unique methods, and unusual techniques

 

NOTE: this is not a generic exercise discussion.  This is about advanced, unique, or special exercises, eclectic training methods beyond the basic, elementary routines most already have experience with.  See the “Advanced Concepts” chapter for the full theory and the “Body Recomp” plan for concrete examples of what exercises to do, and when and how to do them.
Also note:  this entire section is not instructional on how to technically perform the exercises; you can find that anywhere.  YouTube, books and magazines, trainers at your local gym, etc.

A comment on General Physical Preparedness (GPP).

Nearly every one one of the exercises below were shot in sequence, with no prep, after days of travel and performed at an unfamiliar location.  You’re seeing the very first reps.  No warmup.  No acclimation.  Many of these techniques I hadn’t used in a cycle for months and months.  Yet I knocked them all out with little effort.  That’s general physical preparedness. (Granted, some of this was with mere demonstration weights, and limited to the power-strength-hypertrophy end of the Strength/Endurance spectrum.)  True GPP means you can hit the entire realm on the spectrum at any given time.

 

The first routine – Super Slow Reps – is designed for beginners and advanced alike.  The rest of the examples are for more advanced trainees to use as part of a de-training 1-2 week cycle to be used every ~ 8 weeks on the Body Recomp plan, or to occasionally mix things up or to give other options when the basic exercises just aren’t cutting it during the normal routine, and ultimately to help avoid plateaus and burnout, as well as bring up lagging muscle groups.  These exercises are in no particular order.

 

Super Slow Reps

It will teach beginners proper technique, mind-muscle connection, and overall body feel, as well as start to increase general strength and get familiar and gain confidence with working their bodies. For experienced trainees, this sort of routine can help strengthen tendons, increase mitochondrial biogenesis, and as well as allow for a few weeks of low-intensity maintenance.

The exercise:

You’re going to do just a few basic exercises.
You’re only going to do them 1-3 times each for the whole workout.
And you’re going to do them really slow.

Exercise selection:

Squats
Pushups
– incline
– flat
Inverted lat pulls
– on bars
– in a door jamb
– TRX straps if you have them

That’s it.  4-5 total exercises.  Only 1-3 “reps” each.  Here’s the catch:  each rep has to be done slowly, with perfect form, at a constant speed up and down, for 1-3 minutes, minimum.

For example:
Squat – 1.5 minutes down, 1.5 minutes up
Incline Pushup – 50 sec down, 50 sec up
Flat Pushup – 50 sec down, 50 sec up
Inverted Lat Pull – 50 sec up, 50 sec down
Doorjamb Lat Pull — 60 sec up, 60 sec down

Repeat that circuit 1-3 times.  That will be your workout.  Do it 2-3 times a week.

At least that’s the goal.  I can tell you now, that unless you’re already an endurance athlete (and thus have optimized your slow-twitch muscle fibers) most reading this will not be able to do those exercises as long a time as listed on the first try.  Your arms and legs will be wobbling, your muscles burning, and you’ll try and speed up especially where you have no leverage and it hurts the most.

Here is a video of me doing it.

 

 

Extreme Isometrics  (should be called “Long duration static holds”)

Somewhat similar to Super Slow Reps, in that it’s a long time-under-tension exercise.  In dynamic isometrics, you hold a position.  People who focus on this training can be seen holding the position for 5 or more minutes!

Exercise selection:

Lunge
Wall squat
Squat
Pushup (flat and incline)
Inverse rows  (hold top contracted position — see last exercise at park under “Super Slow Reps”)

Assume the position.  Your quads will be parallel in the wall squat, squat, and lunge.  Your arms should probably be at a 90º angle for pushups.  Inverse rows should probably be held at the top (fully contracted)

Hold it for as long as you can.  Here are two guys holding a lunge for 5 minutes.

 

 

Isometrics

In regards to resistance training, this will usually require a rack/cage to lift in, where you set pins to limit the range of motion of the bar.  You then push or pull as hard as you can for 8-12 seconds.  Isometrics have been shown to increase strength, at least within the range of motion hit during the exercise.  Strengthening the weak point can help one power through a sticking point on the regular lift.

 

 

Partial reps

You work only part of a range of motion on a given exercise.  This can help strengthen weak points in the movement, but it can also give your joints a rest and even have a pre-habilitation effect by strengthening the joints.

There are different ways to do this; some require unique training tools, others do not.

The simplest would be a floor press (floor bench press).

Another example would be squats or deadlifts within a cage or rack, where you use the cage to limit range of motion.  You can set the safety pins/bars/racks at different heights.  You can start from that point, or push/pull to that point.  (if you push up into the pins and keep pushing, that would of course add an isometric component to the rep)

For example, the deadlift:  you set the safety bars of the cage at a height just below your knees.  That is where the barbell rests.  So when you start to lift the barbell, you’re starting with the bar just below your knees.  For most people, this is a sticking point, a weak point of the movement.  By start just below that point (because the barbell is resting on the safety bars at that point) you cannot use momentum from the floor to help lift the bar.  Thus you build strength at that sticking point.

Another example would be “bottom-up” squats, starting with the barbell down on the pins at a lower portion of the movement.  So you’re starting already squatted down just to get under the bar, instead of standing up, and have to start by initially lifting and squatting up from the bottom position with no momentum, as opposed to starting by lowering down, as with traditional squats.  In that scenario, one should set the bar on the pins briefly at the bottom of each rep.

video coming soon

 

 

Deficit work

Almost the opposite of partial reps, you expand the range of motion beyond normal means.

The most common method would be deadlifts while standing on some sort of raised platform.  The platform is only under your feet, not the bar.  So the bar is sitting lower than your feet, forcing you to lift it further.  (This can also be simulated by doing wide-grip deadlifts.)  This can also be done with pushups by placing your hands on something raised.

 

 

Special bars & stabilization reps

Special shaped dumbells can radically change the nature of an exercise.  These can be expensive so aren’t practical for most home gyms, and even most commercial gyms won’t have most of these, so the application will be limited for most.

However, there is a way to simulate one of the more interesting bars, the “bamboo” bar.  This type of bar is shaky and forces absolute control of the movement, which works all of your stabilizer muscles.  These sorts of lifts probably bring a strong rehabilitative element as well.

Here is a way to copy the effect; hang kettlebells on the bar, and/or hang kettlebells from bands, which are hanging from the bar (forgot to record that usage).

 

 

Cadence, pause, & tempo variations

You can do the positive (“concentric”), negative (“eccentric”), and pausing segments of any movement at different speeds.  As discussed in the “Advanced Concepts” chapter, this will hit different muscles fibers, sometimes different energy systems, and induce different adaptations, as well as changing time-under-tension and often metabolic stress.

Probably the most common cadence for most lifting is a 4-2-2 tempo.  That means 4 seconds lowering (negative) the bar, 2 seconds holding the pause, then 2 seconds lifting.

Here is me doing “pausing deadlifts” where I pause several inches off the floor, then several inches below the knee, on the positive part of the lift.

 

 

Negatives

The negative or “eccentric” part of a lift is the part of the movement when you lengthen the muscle.  It is sometimes not what most beginners think of as the “active work” part of the lift, even though eccentric negative work can bring massive gains to strength and size.

The negative part of the movement:  for example with pushups, they work the pectoralis chest muscles.  When you lower yourself back down to the floor, you’re lengthening those muscles.  The lowering part of a pushup is the negative.  When you push yourself back up, you’re tightening and contracting the chest muscles.  That is the “concentric,” or positive part of the movement.

During a squat, when you lower your body down (and lengthen the quads) that is the negative of the movement.
During a deadlift, when you set the bar back down.
During curls (arms or legs), as you lower the bar/machine, and it stretches the biceps or hamstrings.  That is the negative.  When you pull the weight back up and contract the muscle, that’s the positive.

So doing negatives means you focus on the lengthening portion of the movement, usually doing it longer than usual.  If using a cage or rack (or spotters) one can go above their one-rep-maximum lift and do a single, slow negative.  In other words, you can typically do a negative for more than your max lift.

Here is me lowering a moderately light weight for a long, slow cadence, pausing 2 seconds at the bottom, then coming up fairly quickly.  I do 2 reps for a set.  Total sets and work volume will depend on what other work is being done in the same workout.

As with all of these exercise variations, I might swap in this workout (for my quads (Day 1 Anabolic)) for a few weeks when I start to plateau.  Or I might actually do it for 3-4 weeks as part of my regular Hypertrophy (Day 1, 2^nd cycle ‘Light / Hypertrophy’) routine in the Body Recomp plan.

 

 

Weighted Stretches

Do a hypertrophy set (8-15 reps) to failure (meaning you literally can’t do any more reps), then hold the weight at the ‘stretched’ rest position for 15-30 seconds.  This will hurt like hell.  It increases TUT but also induces massive metabolic stress.  Then knock out as many more reps as you can to finish the set.

(Footage included at the end of the Drop Sets video below)

 

 

Drop Sets

You set the bar up with numerous small weights that will be taken off throughout the exercise set.  This allows for more total volume, as well as reaching muscular failure and recruiting (and thus improving) the maximum potential muscle fibers.

At the end of this drop set, I add in a Weighted Stretch.

 

 

Myo-Reps

With Myo-reps you do an exercise in the hypertrophy rep range of around 10-15 reps.  Rest taking 4-5 breaths, then knock out 4-5 more reps.  Repeat until you cannot do at least 4 reps.  This method allows most of the reps you do to be “effective” reps, by which is meant you’re near fatigue, recruiting all of your fibers of the target muscle, which is the main driver of muscle hypertrophy growth.

(Note:  in the video the ‘5-breath-rest’ position (pictured below in the video preview image) is actually a “Weighted Stretch” when my hands stay on the kettlebell, as it’s stretching the triceps and they’re burning!  However a true Weighted Stretch should probably last a good 20-30 seconds, much longer than it takes for the 5-breaths.  Probably best to let the weight rest on the chest while letting the arms rest to the side, straightened out, and not stretching the triceps during those five breaths!)

 

 

Cluster sets

In cluster sets, you break up the normal number of reps you would do into ‘mini-sets’ (or ‘clusters’) and take mini-rests between each… so that you can ultimately knock out 1-2 more reps per (what would be your) normal set thus increasing overall mechanical load.

So if you can only bench a certain weight for 8 reps…in cluster sets, you do only 2 reps, then rack it.  Take a few breaths, rest for 10-15 seconds… then do 2 more reps.  Rack, rest, and repeat.  Continue this, and you should be able to do more than the normal 8 reps at that weight that you could normally do.

 

 

Speed work

Just like it sounds, your training will focus primarily on speed and explosiveness.  This means you’ll typically use only around 50-60% of your maximum weight for a given exercise… but you’ll move it as fast as you possibly can, while still maintaining proper form.

These are typically done as ‘doubles’ or ‘triples’ (2 or 3 reps at a time) and only for large, compound lifts like deadlifts, squats, bench press, and so on.  The rest periods are usually somewhat brief (1 minute usually).

 

 

Bands & Chains

Band and chains can be attached to the bar (or used on the body) to apply “accommodating” resistance.  This means that the resistance changes throughout the movement.

Huge rubber bands will apply a different strength curve as they’re stretched.  Heavy chains can be suspended from the ends of the bar.  As the bar is lowered, the chains come to rest of the floor, no longer weighing down the bar.  Then as the bar is raised again, the chains are pulled off the floor, again adding more weight towards the top of the movement.

 

 

Speed work + bands and chains

One can combine bands or chains to most of their lifts.  However it’s especially beneficial to add bands to light, explosive Speed Work.  If you watched the Speed Work video above, you saw that on many lifts (deads and squats) I almost jump off the floor.  Really I’m holding back just a little, which is not ideal.  Bands keep that from happening, as you never overcome the inertia of their weight the way you can static free weights, and thus you can drive more through the end of the movement.

Note:  on deadlifts it’s probably a good idea to have the mental cue of starting the movement  of the lift controlled for the first inch off the floor, then explode into the speed lift.  That way you’re not ‘jerking’ the weight from the floor, risking your back in the process.  Controlling that first inch or so off the ground allows for better starting control and is safer on the back.

So do the first inch off the floor with control, use it for momentum, then explode into the speed movement, maintaining core pressure (breath) the whole time.

 

 

 

Plyometrics

Plyometrics are specific exercises that utilize the ‘stretch reflex’ mechanism to amplify one’s speed and explosiveness.

The “stretch reflex” (or “stretch-shorten cycle”) is an innate mechanism to the neuromuscular system.  When a muscle is stretched, especially when stretched quickly, there is a reflexive contraction of that muscle, with a simultaneous relaxation of the opposing muscle.

For example, the doctor tests your reflexes by hitting your knee at the patellar tendon below the kneecap with a rubber hammer.  It can make the leg kick.  You’re not consciously moving your foot, but it can jump.  What happens is when the hammer hits the tendon, it slightly (but quickly) stretches your quadriceps in your thigh.  This causes it to slightly contract, kicking the foot up.

Perhaps a better example would be any time you swing or throw something.  You first pull your arm back, then launch it forward.  That initial pulling back stretches the chest and shoulder muscles and ‘loads’ them, allowing a more powerful reverse movement back forward again.

Besides harnessing the stretch reflex mechanism, plyometrics often take advantage of gravity and kinetic energy as resistance.  For example, depth drops, where someone drops off of a raised box… when you land, gravity is causing many times your own bodyweight in downward force for that initial moment of landing.  This can be hundreds and hundreds of extra pounds coming down in that split second.

That moment is when you must properly perform the repetition, otherwise it will be too late and the energy lost.

It’s been shown that the more explosive the activity (and the better the athlete) the shorter the time they make ground contact.  Olympic level sprinters are touching the ground around .15 to .10 seconds per step.  That’s quick.  A good plyometric should try to approach that brevity of ground contact.

Notice how in both the plyo pushups and the depth drops (off the box) how I am “pre-loaded” in the firing position before landing on each rep.  This minimizes ground contact time, but also activates the stretch reflex for each rep.  EDIT:  no jump-based plyometrics in this video.

 

 

Ballistic work (kettlebells)

The ballistic nature of kettlebell movements, especially swings and snatches, are unique and hit the body in a way difficult to duplicate with regular free weights and impossible with most machines.

Most kettlebell work like swings and snatches hit the posterior chain (back, glutes, hamstrings) and so may not help pushing motions.  Therefore kettlebell work such as swings and snatches should be used to bring up the posterior chain and used on your “Pulls Days” in place of other pulling work.

(Video examples in the “Deadlift vs Assistance Work” video, and the Viking Warrior video)

 

 

Super-high rep work

One can do super high-rep workouts that will maintain muscle mass (at least for a few weeks before one needs to resume heavier resistance work), but also give cardiovascular health.  These can be bodyweight work or with lighter weights.  Most tend to be metabolic in nature (breathing heavy, high heart-rate, muscles burning, etc), and are usually some sort of circuit, station, or interval training.

Both German Complex training and the Viking Warrior can actually increase  your maximum strength, despite not being in the classical 1-5 reps range, and despite being long and metabolic in nature.  These are used heavily in the Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan.

 

 

Bodyweight high-rep circuits

These are fairly common nowadays.  You alternate usually between different muscle groups so one group can rest while the other works.  May also help to alternate movements that do and do not tax the cardiovascular system, so every so many movements serve as active rest.

Example of a “Pushes” circuit:

• burpees / squat-thrusts
• pushups
• mountain climbers
• feet-elevated pushups
• plank for time

Repeat the circuit for 20 minutes total.

video coming soon

 

 

German Complex training

This is a great high-rep anaerobic workout for the entire posterior chain.  If you’re not used to this sort of work, you’ll probably not be able to finish the whole workout the first time.  And your entire posterior chain, from the back of your head, down to the back of your heels, will be sore.  (DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness)

Here is the routine:  you use a standard Olympic barbell with only a single 10lb plate on each side.

• full high pulls X 8
• power snatches X 8
• squatting overhead push press (behind the neck if possible) X 8
• good mornings X 8
• bent over rows X 8

Take a 2 minute break.
Repeat 10 times.

The entire workout should be less than 40 minutes.

Tips:  all of these are full motion movements, but you do not need to set the bar down each after each rep; down to the shins is low enough.  And the squatting portion of the overhead push press need only be a quarter squat.  You may also want to use a pad on the center of the bar, as when it comes down after each push press (if doing behind the neck) it can really start to land on the neck as you get fatigued.

 

 

 

Viking Warrior

This is a great workout.  It is one of the best VO2 (maximum oxygen usage) and cardiovascular workouts you can do, it also builds strength and explosiveness, and has been shown to burn upwards of 800 calories in a single 40 minutes workout, wherein you’re actually only working for 20 of the 40 minutes.

It is an interval workout; there are periods of work, followed by equal periods of rest.  It involves doing snatches with a lighter weight kettlebell.  Like many of the exercises in this section, this is not for beginners.  One should first already have a very good technical mastery of the kettlebell snatch before doing this workout.

You first do a benchmark test to ascertain what weight of kettlebell you will start with.  Most people will probably land around 20-25lbs.

There are several versions of this workout.  The one we’ll mention here is the 15:15 workout.  That is, 15 seconds snatching, 15 seconds rest.

Here’s how it goes:

15 seconds, snatch 7-9 times with the Left hand
15 seconds rest
15 seconds, snatch 7-9 times with the Right hand
15 seconds rest

Repeat 40 times (adding up to a total of 560 to 720 snatches) in 40 minutes.

 

Determining the weight of the kettlebell…

There is a complicated benchmark test one can do to determine the exact weight of kettlebell they should use for this routine.  Instead of copying that here (from the Viking Warrior ebook) it would probably be just as easy to say that most people should probably start around 20-25lb kettlebell, and start at 7 reps per 15 second interval.  If you’re able to do the whole routine, (40 minutes), then either move up to 8-9 reps per 15 seconds, or move up to a heavier kettlebell.

I started at 25lbs a few years ago, and last time on the 4-6 week cycle I did 40lbs for 8-9 reps for 40 minutes.

 

Points to consider:

• To do 7 snatches in 15 seconds requires fast movements, so you have to do both the positive and negative part of the exercise as fast as you can. This is unusual; few exercises have you actually lower the weight as fast as you can.  But here, you have to.  You don’t let the kettlebell drop, but rather you have to actually pull the kettlebell down fast.  It’s the only way to get 7 reps done in only 15 seconds.  You really have to go fast to do 9 reps in 15 seconds.  So both the up and down movements of the snatch have to go as fast as you can.
• Technical mastery of the snatch. Imagine doing 500 snatches with improper form.  Guess what that will do to your shoulders?  This is why technique must be very good before doing this routine.
• Hand health. Doing hundreds of high speed snatches can be very hard on the hands.  I’ll even often switch grips to a ‘finger grip’ towards the end of the routine

As with the German Complex routine, this will totally work every single muscle in your posterior chain.  Switching to the Viking Warrior for a few weeks before going back to the regular Clean Bulk variant of the Body Recomp plan can actually increase your big lifts like the deadlift, even though you will have done nothing but light weight kettlebell snatches during that time.

The Viking Warrior is also used frequently in the Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan.

 

 

 

Cardio-induced hypertrophy

A recent study showed that cardiovascular training actually induced hypertrophy of the quadriceps…however this hypertrophy was entirely sarcoplasmic (water, glycogen, mitochondria, and energy-based systems) hypertrophy, and showed no increase protein synthesis or contractile elements.  This means no strength increases.  This also means that cardio-induced hypertrophy will not maintain those contractile elements of the muscle over time.  Thus if all you do is cardio induced hypertrophy, you will eventually get weaker, and most likely lose muscle tissue (via loss of the contractile elements).

Activities like jogging or using a stepper can be used in place of “Legs Pushes” day (2^nd cycle Hypertrophy) for brief cycles or strategically on certain leg days of the regular cycle.

 

 

Assistance and Accessory work (for lagging muscles and weak points)

Assistance work are exercises that isolate a single muscle group, especially helpful to strengthen weak muscles that may be holding back a lift.  (Remember – weak muscle groups don’t’ just keep your lifts weak… they can allow injuries to happen, so it’s always good to bring up lagging muscles)

Assistance work will typically be used to shore up the main compound lifts and the muscles they use; squats, deadlift, and the bench.  A person can occasionally eliminate the main lifts, doing only assistance work in place of the main compound lifts for 3-4 week cycles.

Example:  In place of doing the formal deadlift, you can instead do:

• Hyperextensions (lower back)
• Kettlebell swings/snatches (lower back)
• Glute bridges (glutes)
• Glute raises (hamstrings)
• Leg curls (hamstrings)
• Stiff legged deadlifts (hamstrings, glutes)

Note:  this is not the same as the Conjugate Method, where one uses a variant on the compound lifts, in place of the original lift, in order to strengthen that original lift.  Example: instead of continuing with regular (orthodox) deadlifts, you can cycle in sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, deficit deadlifts, paused deadlifts, rack pulls, good mornings, etc.  As per the Body Recomp plan, one should first cycle in these conjugate variants, and then use Assistance / Accessory work shown here to augment those conjugate lifts.  Otherwise one can solely use these Accessory lifts to replace the big compound lifts for brief cycles.

So here one can do a workout to hit every major muscle used in the lower body that works during deadlifts… but without actually doing deadlifts.  As with all of these exercise choices, it allows one to improve the targeted muscles, the primary lifts and movements they perform, working different places along the strength / endurance spectrum, all while adding variety.

 

 

CIRCADIAN HEALTH

The circadian rhythm is the “biological clock.”  It is the natural physiological responses that are tied to when we feel sleepy, wake up, daily energies raise and lower, and when we feel hungry.  Disordered and disrupted circadian patterns have been tied to everything from depression to diabetes and obesity, to certain types of cancer.

The “QuickStart” chapter talks of several ways to use the CFB to help get to sleep at night, or even reset and “pull back” circadian rhythms for night owl types.

Melatonin is a required supplement, at least for those with any sleep or circadian issues.  Anyone interested in cold thermogenesis should also take melatonin, since it’s the only supplement shown to always activate and cultivate brown fat.  Typical dosages are 1 to 3mg per pill, though some go as high as 6mg or even 10mg doses.  I prefer NOW brand melatonin.  I take a single 3mg pill around 15 minutes before I want to be asleep.

Another significant factor in circadian health is light exposure.  Our current technology and lifestyle can have a tremendous negative impact on our circadian health.  In nature, sunlight hits a blue hue in the early afternoon.  By evening, sunlight is a red hue.  By night, all we had was starlight… or maybe a fire.  More red light.  Now compare this to our current lifetyle on Earth.  All of our lights, our TV screens, our computer monitors, our handheld devices… they all throw off blue light.  And we use them at night.  Night shift workers have a higher incidence of heart disease and obesity.  Even mice, when exposed to blue light at night, lose brown fat activity, and spontaneously begin gaining fat!

One option is to intall f.lux on all of your devices.  It gradually shifts the screen color to match the light we would be seeing in nature.  The best option is to not watch TV or computer monitors at night, especially before bed.  Some people even wear red sunglasses at nightor replace their bulbs with red/orange bulbs or bulbs that block blue light.

Honorable mention goes to the technique of “grounding.”  This is the practice of exposing your body to the earth through direct physical contact.  For example taking a barefoot walk in your yard for a few minutes in the morning.  Their are many claims to grounding that are not scientifically backed (for example, “ion transfer”), however there are certain psychological and meditative qualities to grounding that could be very helpful to everyone.  Walking barefoot in the yard for a few minutes every morning could have a tremendous energetic and psychological impact.

 

 

GETTING INTO THE ZONE

“The zone” is a higher state of consciousness.  A peak experience.  The phrase “the zone” tends to refer to higher states of consciousness as applied towards athletic endeavors.

As you read this, you are in normal self-conscious mode.  This text and the screen it’s on seems separate from you, you are a separate entity who is reading it, and aware of yourself as being yourself.  This is normal self-consciousness within which most human beings spend most of our lives.

But when one experiences the zone, that dynamic changes.  Perceptions of time, sensations from the environment, and feelings of self can all change.

from a basketball player:

“There was no anxiety, there was instead a sense of serenity.  Even though the crowd was roaring, I really didn’t hear them.  It’s like I was hiding and safe in the game.  When I touched the ball, I could feel every texture.  It almost felt big and puffy.  When I shot, I knew it was going in before it left my hands.  It felt so light and floaty.  Everything seemed slowed down.  The whole experience was effortless. “

from a mixed martial artist:

“I started working the bag.  I wasn’t even supposed to go in that day, so I was just going to go real easy.  The heavybag felt light, my punches felt heavy despite feeling easy.  The sweat was flowing and it was turning into a great workout.  There was a strange sense of joy for no reason.  When I was drilling moves with a partner, the techniques were perfect and crisp and flowing out without me even trying.  I wasn’t even thinking, and I would hit the moves almost before I even knew I was doing them.  We finished by doing a few takedowns.  It’s a great feeling when you do the perfect throw.  It is truly effortless.  Throwing a full-sized adult like they don’t even weigh anything, without effort or difficulty.  It ended up being one of the most enjoyable training sessions I’d ever had.”

Everyone who’s experienced the zone can identify with at least some of these descriptions.  And everyone who’s ever experienced the zone knows it’s the most amazing thing.  If one could, they would always be in the zone.  Yet even professional athletes have a hard time getting there.  Why?

Probably the most paradoxical aspect of getting into the zone, is that you do not get into the zone by trying to get into the zone.  Getting into the zone is an incidental by-product of letting go and immersing yourself into the present moment and the activity at hand.  The exact psycho-spiritual mechanism behind this are beyond the scope of this discussion.  But the simplist approach is this:  enjoy yourself doing the thing at hand, and be wherever you are.  And accept and move on from the fact that there is nothing else that needs done beyond just that.

So as applied to training and working out and Cool Fat Burner sessions — because that’s the point of this entire website — one should approach each session focused on the session, and not on oneself.  So instead of trying to get into the zone, one should focus on having a good workout or CFB session.  And the best way to do that?  Be where you are.

The “Advanced Concepts” chapter mentions intuitive training (or “auto-regulation” training).  This approach makes it much easier to “be where you are.”  Not feeling like doing the planned workout?  Mood, energy, body not feeling it?  That’s fine — intuitively adjust, be wherever you are, and workout on that level.

Ultimately one can enter the zone from nearly any emotional starting point, even ‘negative’ emotional starting points.  So long as it motivates one to let go, be in the moment, and focus on the task at hand, it can allow oneself to let go of themselves in the process.

Weight Loss & Muscle Gain – General Concepts You Need to Know

The main forces in fat loss and muscle gain:

1. Energy Balance — Energy In vs Energy Out
2. The Hormonal Effects of Food
3. Sustainability

 

Related factors:

1. Gut biome
2. Genetics, body structure, etc.
3. Environment, learned behaviors, support structure

 

The main forces in fat loss and muscle gain:

 

Energy Balance — Energy In vs Energy Out

Energy In vs Energy Out = EIEO
Calories In vs Calories Out = CICO

Both mean the same thing, but since some don’t like the idea of a “calorie” measuring unit, using the more generic word “energy” seems more acceptable.

So a person requires a certain amount of energy, a number of calories each day to function.  If you consume more calories than you burn, you will store those extra calories as fat, muscle, or other tissue.  If you consume less calories than you burn, you will compensate for the lesser calories either by burning stored bodyfat or catabolizing muscle and in extreme, prolonged cases, other tissue.

Energy In vs Energy Out, (or “Calories In vs Calories Out”) is still the overriding dominant factor for humans in regards to weight loss and muscle gain.  There is no legit or verified study that disproves this.

Note:  some have tried claiming that “Calories In vs Calories Out” isn’t true.  They say that certain types of diets cause more weight loss than others even when calories are held equal between the different types of diets.  This is not true, and has never been shown to be true.  For example, they claim that Low-Carb diets inherently cause more weight loss than Low-Fat diets, even when calories are the same between both types of diets.  However the studies that implied this were all flawed and have been debunked.

Here’s what happens:  In the Low-Carb groups, when people reduce carbs, they tend to also increase protein.  Thus the Low-Carb groups were also eating more protein than the Low-Fat groups!  This is why they lost more weight; protein is the most satiating macronutrient, has a higher ‘thermic effect’ than fat or carbs (takes energy just to digest it) and so on.  This is the real reason Low-Carb diets have occasionally shown an advantage in certain studies.  When both total calories and protein are held constant in both groups (and only fat or carbs are different, but still the same total calories), there is no advantage whatsoever to Low-Carb diets over Low-Fat diets, or any other diet, in regards to simple Calories In vs Calories Out and weight-loss.  There is the case of the professor who lost weight eating twinkies, and recently a science teacher lost weight living off of McDonald’s.  It’s still all about energy balance.  Update:  another study just came out from Norway…  44 female subjects.  Protein and total calories were the same across both groups.  One group was low-carb, the group other was low-fat.  Both lost the exact same amount of weight.  There was no difference between the groups!

This isn’t to say there aren’t differences and possible advantages to both low-carb and low-fat diets.  There are.  But there isn’t a direct metabolic advantage to either.  They don’t violate the rule of energy in vs energy out.  And of course different food sources can have radically different ingredients like fiber and resistant starches, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that can all have an impact on long term health.

Another related claim is that elevated insulin causes weight gain.  This is the theory behind ketogenic diets (like the Atkins diet).  This is also not true, and will be addressed under “The Hormonal Effects of Food.”  On a related note, Gary Taubes, one of the biggest proponents of the “insulin theory of obesity,” funded a metabolic ward study of low carb vs low fat.  Under the tightest controlled conditions (metabolic ward), it was shown that there was no significant or lasting metabolic advantage nor increased weight loss to a low carb diet.  Several other recent studies have shown that low-fat dieting is just as effective as low-carb for weight loss (another study).  One would think this theory would have gone away when it was shown that even dietary fat prevents fat burning!  (when you eat anything, fat burning typically stops during that time, regardless of what it is you’re eating)

Sometimes people cite that different foods have different “absorbable” amounts of calories.  For example almonds or fiber rich foods, when someone eats them, the body often can’t use all the calories listed on the nutrition panel.  This is irrelevant to the argument; it doesn’t violate the law of EIEO.  Whatever calories you get out of eating almonds… those calories are those calories.  They don’t magically disappear from the body.  That is a mistake on the label concerning the real, usable number of calories in the food, and has nothing to do with our bodies or EIEO.

People also cite various hormonal difference from person to person, as well as resultant hormonal changes from food ingestion.  Yes, hormonal changes can increase or decrease metabolism, and should be considering when engaging in body transformation.  But again, this isn’t violating EIEO.

Update:  a year-long study yet again showed no difference between low-carb vs low-fat, for weight loss.

 

Burning fat vs glucose… does it matter for weight loss?

The body can burn different substrates for fuel — fat, glucose, glycogen, and even muscle  — but at the end of the day, in terms of fat loss, all that matters is that there is a deficit.  It does not matter (in terms of just weight loss) if you’re burning fat or glucose or glycogen.  They are all calories, and if they’re burned and reduced over time, the overall fat content of your body will decrease.  However what fuels you burn can have other impacts on mood, energy levels, performance, health, and longevity.  And the hormonal effects of food can have a tremendous impact on body composition.

But talking only about fat loss, it doesn’t matter if you’re burning fat or glucose or glycogen during a period of time.  All that matters is creating an energy deficit.  All controlled and well-designed studies have verified this.

 

It may be helpful to keep in mind, that throughout a typical day, your body will be in storage and burning mode, and throughout your body’s trillions of cells, this will be going on in both directions, constantly.  Simply put, you’re rarely if ever only burning fuel, or storing fuel, and you’re rarely ever burning only fat or only glucose or only glycogen.  Both burning and building are happening all throughout your systems and cells, pretty much all the time.  It’s a complex system.  The key then, is the overall net results over time.  If you are in a deficit over time, you will lose weight.  It doesn’t matter if that deficit is burning fat or glucose or glycogen.  Being “fat adapted” has no benefit in regards to simple deficits and weight loss.  NOTE:  there are however benefits to burning fat vs glucose vs glycogen for health, longevity, mood, energy, and different athletic activities and hormonal effects.  More on that later.

Quick Definitions:

Fat – subcutaneous fat is the fat under your skin, the fat we typically think of on our stomach, legs, etc. the fat people try to lose to look and feel better.
Visceral fat is the fat around your organs.  Some say visceral fat is the ‘dangerous’ fat, but it’s pretty much agreed upon that excessive subcutaneous fat is directly related to all sorts of health disorders (diabetes, heart disease, etc)  Some have tried to propose there are “healthy obese” people (known as the “obesity paradox”), but for the most part, those theories (and related studies) have been debunked.  Any obese ‘healthy’ person would be healthier if they were to lose that extra fat tissue.

Brown fat (brown adipose tissue) as well as similar types of fat (“beige fat,” for example) are types of fat that can burn calories to generate heat, typically during cold exposure.  They’re ‘good’ fat.  Leaner people have naturally more brown fat, more obese have less (or none).  Brown fat can be increased in a matter of weeks after consistent cold exposure.

Dietary fats –the fats we eat — come from animal or plant sources.  Certain activities, usually lower intensity cardiovascular type exercise, prefer fat as a fuel source over glucose.  Dietary fats can easily be stored in fat cells if we’re in a caloric surplus.

Glucose – sugar, typically blood sugar, usually coming from ingesting carbohydrates.  Primary fuel source for the brain and the body’s tissues.  Carbohydrates do not easily store as fats, though they can if we’re in a caloric surplus.  Even then, only around 75% of ingested carbs can be stored as fat.

Glycogen – a form of glucose, stored in your muscles (also stored in the liver and released into the bloodstream) and used for fuel during high intensity activity.  Diet, exercise, and cold thermogenesis can all deplete muscle glycogen.  When you eat carbohydrates, they’ll first be used to restore glycogen levels.

Protein —  composes tissue of the skeletal muscles, as well as most of the organs.  Can burn glucose but also fats (burned fat is typically in the form of “free fatty acids”) to produce movement and work.  Ingested protein can be found in both plant and animal sources, is broken down into amino acids during digestion, and used by most tissues of the body.

So all of that is the “Energy In” or “Calories In” part of the equation.  All consumed food.

 

 

 

Here is the “Energy Out” or “Calories Out” part of the equation —

 

Resting Metabolic Rate – (RMR) this is the calorie burn that occurs while you’re at rest, and it comes from all the tissues of your body, especially your organs.

Your organs require a lot of calories to function, more than most probably realize.  The brain and heart are top on the list.  Even at rest they burn a lot of calories.  For example, if a particular woman’s daily calorie burn is around 2400 calories, her RMR might be 1600 calories or more, which would be 2/3 of her daily calories burned, automatically and without effort.  Simply put, most people don’t realize how much of their RMR is responsible for their daily calories burned.

This is also why one should try to preserve as much muscle tissue as possible when they’re trying to lose weight (burn fat).  Muscle and even fat burns calories throughout the day.  Muscle burns around 8 calories per pound per day, at rest.  And yes, even fat, regular old white fat, has a very small caloric requirement, estimated to be around 3 calories per pound, per day.  So when you lose weight, any weight, if everything else is held constant, your resting metabolism goes down.  Because you’ve lost tissue, and all tissue requires at least some calories to maintain itself.  (Note:  except in cases of starvation, your organs do not shrink or lose tissue, so no need to worry, will not lower your RMR by losing organ tissue; they stay the same.)

Muscle has a significant caloric demand.  So the more muscle you have, the higher your RMR, and the easier it is to keep losing weight.  When you lose muscle, your RMR can plummet.  Now you can’t eat as much or you’ll gain weight.  (will go into more detail in the “Advanced Concepts” chapter)

This brings up the concept of using your own body to cause weight-loss.  Using your RMR, your organs, to drive weight loss, merely by the sheer number of calories they burn.  This is done by consciously counting calories and making sure  you eat less than your RMR most basic daily activities burn.  (you wouldn’t exercise or increase NEAT or cold thermogenesis on this type of plan)  This is of course a limited approach, (since it doesn’t allow for all the other ways to burn calories beyond your RMR and most basic daily functions) but does reinforce the reality of how many calories your resting metabolic rate can burn without you even doing anything.

Some may classify Brown Fat (BAT – “Brown Adipose Tissue”) to be included as your RMR.  But this would only apply to cases of constitutionally lean people who have constant, 24-hour active brown fat.  Also note that being highly cold-adapted may increase your resting metabolic rate even at times when you’re not exposed to cold by keeping your Brown Fat constantly active, even at warmer temps where it normally would not be.

Otherwise brown fat should probably go under ‘Cold Thermogenesis” instead of RMR.

 

To truly find out one’s RMR one would have to get an indirect calorimetry test done, to directly measure respiration.  However a close approximation can be found simply by multiplying 10 (for women) or 11 (for me) times their bodyweight.

 

 

NEAT

NEAT, or “Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis” is all the daily physical activities you do, that is not exercise.  Walking, standing, carrying things, working around the house, etc etc etc.  NEAT can add up to incredible amounts of calories.  Consider a carpenter or construction worker or a server at a really busy restaurant; they could burn literally thousands of calories a day, just from working!

Ironically, NEAT may be one of the factors as to why ‘naturally’ lean people are lean.  When naturally lean people overeat, they tend to spontaneously increase their NEAT.  They fidget, shift around, move and walk more.  It’s as though they subconsciously burn off the extra calories.

What’s more, when overweight people introduce or increase exercise, they often tend to reduce their NEAT, or if they consciously increase NEAT, they either eat more or exercise less, thus equaling out the EIEO equation and negating any benefits!

Note:  this effect – reducing one’s NEAT when one increases exercise — is why the Body Recomp plan has one cycle everything, including NEAT.  The compensatory things people do (reduce NEAT when increasing exercise) may be easier to control if you’re only doing it one or two days a week, as opposed to trying to increase your NEAT every single day.

NEAT can be a ‘secret weapon’ in the battle of body transformation.  So long as you don’t downgrade anything else, it can make a huge impact.  Stand instead of sit.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Park farther away.

 

Cold Thermogenesis

Cold thermogenesis is the process where your body burns calories to generate heat during controlled cold exposure.  It’s how the Cool Fat Burner works.

Under mild conditions, cold exposure doesn’t burn a lot of calories in real-time, unless done for many hours a day.  The Cool Fat Burner has been shown able to activate Brown Fat and keep it active for hours after removing the vests.  I’ve personally experienced increased heat production (BAT activation) over 16 hour after taking off the vest!  That sure counts as “many” hours a day!

At higher intensities, cold thermogenesis can burn calories rivaling low-grade exercise.

As one approaches shivering, metabolism jumps to nearly 100% increase.  As one enters even the lower, subtle levels of shivering, metabolism jumps to 300%.  At full out shivering, one can reach upwards of a 500% metabolic boost.  That would be like a really fast paced run in terms of raw calorie burning.

Note:  cold thermogenesis increases calorie burning without directly tiring the muscles, thus can be done in concert with exercise.  Cold thermogenesis also can induce many positive hormonal changes that go beyond mere weight-loss, and will be addressed in other chapters.

 

Exercise

This one is self-explanatory.

However different exercises can have a radically different impact on fat burning, muscle building, metabolism, hormones, and overall body composition, since different types of exercise burn different number of calories, work different fuel sources, effect hormones differently, and work the muscles in radically different ways.  Also keep in mind that more muscles means a higher resting metabolism.

Let’s look at the “Strength / Endurance” spectrum:

At the left end of the spectrum we have the hardest, heaviest, most intense effort exercises.  Max effort lifting, sprints, jumps, and so on.  Doing something once (or maybe 2-3 times) at your absolute maximum effort.  The most you can lift, the fastest you can sprint, the highest you can jump.  But you can only do those things a few times before you need time to recover.  On the other end of the spectrum, we have opposite types of activity.  Easy, low-intensity work that you can do almost indefinitely… but to which you’re doing almost no weight or resistance.

Examples of high intensity work of strength, explosiveness, and hypertrophy (on the left end of the spectrum) would be powerlifting, sprints, throwing events, and high and long jumps, as well as common bodybuilding and weightlifting.

These activities work the nervous system and the muscular system for strength, power, and muscular size.
Tends to burn glycogen, the starchy fuel within muscles.
Increases glucose uptake into muscles after the workout.
Can increase growth hormone and testosterone after the workout.
High potential for burnout and injury if not properly done.

On the other end of the spectrum would be low intensity steady state cardio.  Examples would include walking and light jogging.

Works the cardio-vascular system.
Tends to burn fat for fuel.
May increase insulin sensitivity.
Little chance of injury or burnout, but the activity usually takes longer.

In the middle of the spectrum, the exercises tend to be a mix of both extremes, and is referred to as anaerobic power endurance.  There is some high-effort work mixed in with periods of relative rest.  This would include formal circuit, station, and interval training, but would also include many sports, where you sprint, jump, swing, and punch, then move or stand for a time.

Examples would be formal interval, circuit and station training, as well as sports like basketball, soccer, tennis, mixed martial arts, etc, as well as activities like kettlebell work, crossfit, MetCons, HIIT, and so on.  You’re essentially mixing it all together.

Definitions —

Interval training – when one intentionally mixes different levels of intensity, for specific, prearranged times.  For example, one may jump rope for 30 seconds (work phase), then stand (active rest) for 30 seconds.  They may repeat that for 20 rounds (20 minutes total).  Interval training usually incorporates rest periods in between other high intensity work.  Wind sprints are another example.  Sprint for a distance as fast as you can (work phase)… then walk back to the starting line (active rest).  Repeat.  (Wind sprints might be considered High Intensity Interval Training, or “HIIT”)

Circuit training – you have two or more exercises set up, and you go through and do them.  Time isn’t necessarily a factor, though repetitions (how many times you do each movement) is usually a factor.  So you may do 20 push-ups, followed immediately by 20 squats, followed immediately by 20 crunches.  The three exercises make up the circuit.  They’re not timed, but you are counting reps (20) for each.  You then repeat for X number of total sets.

Station training – station training is very similar in function to circuit training.  However in station training, you would have specific stations where you complete all sets on a given exercise (station), then move to the next exercise before again doing all sets, leaving it behind and moving onto the next.

So elements of interval, station, and circuit training may overlap.

As the Strength / Endurance spectrum shows, you can’t do both max effort and max endurance at the same time.  You can’t lift your max effort weight over and over and over.  If you can, then it’s not your max effort weight.

 

NOTE:  the Cool Fat Burner on the Strength / Endurance spectrum

Low level cold thermogenesis (non-shivering, brown-fat only-level intensity) burns fat for fuel.  This is analogous to low intensity cardio, to the right of the spectrum, in regards to fuel utilization.  Higher intensity cold thermogenesis (shivering) can burn not only fat, but also glycogen and can increase the hormones irisin and adiponectin, which can increase muscle tissue (irisin via inhibiting myostatin) and increase muscular mitochondrial biogenesis (via adiponectin).  So in that respect, hardcore CFB use is analogous to anaerobic power endurance on the middle of the spectrum, in both fuel usage, and some physiological effects of exercise.

 

Regarding exercise —  “General Physical Preparedness”

A good rule of thumb for both body composition as well as general health, is to be at least somewhat competent and capable at all activities on the spectrum.  This is sometimes referred to as “General Physical Preparedness.”  Being able to handle all situations and circumstances on the spectrum.

What is the use of being supremely strong… if you’re out of breath and nearly dying of a heart attack just from walking up a flight of steps?
What is the use of being able to easily jog for miles and miles… and then you throw out your back trying to pick up a bag of groceries?

Every activity on the spectrum brings different benefits.  To maximize one’s health, one must therefore do everything on the spectrum.  Thus GPP is about maximizing health.  So the ideal is to pick areas on the Strength / Endurance spectrum that you enjoy, but still be at least minimally competent at all the areas.  Of course competitive athletes will have specific areas they need to focus on for their particular sports.  And as one begins to burn fat and cut weight, resistance training (the left end of the spectrum) becomes increasingly important for preserving muscle tissue and thus maintaining RMR.

We will go into more detail, especially functional, applicable information, in the “Advance Concepts” chapter.

 

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

It takes energy to digest food.  Protein, fats, carbs, and alcohol.  It takes energy to digest them.  That property – the need of energy just to digest food — is called the “thermic effect” of food.

Protein has the highest thermic effect.  It takes the equivalent of around 25-30% of the calories in a sample of protein simply to digest it.  So if you eat 100 calories of protein, your body will need around 25 to 30 calories simply in the process of digesting it.  (the calories used during digestion are not necessarily from the protein itself of course)

The high thermic effect of protein is extremely important for having a good dietary plan for fat burning, muscle retention, and weight loss.  It means you can fill up on protein without worrying about gaining fat!  Here is a study where they have subjects 800 extra calories a day in protein… yet they did not gain any fat!!!

The other macronutrients – fats, carbs, and alcohol – have a low TEF.  It takes very little to digest them.  So the cornerstone of every single meal should be protein.  It helps fill you up more than fats or carbs, it helps retain muscle during a caloric deficit, it rebuilds muscle after exercise, and it has the highest thermic effect, costing calories to even digest it.

Note:  do not confuse TEF with other digestive properties such as fiber content, roughage, food bulk, gastric emptying, etc.  The thermic effect of food is a property different than what form the food comes in, or what other nutrients come along with it (when eaten in whole food choices).  In other words, the same type of protein eaten from whole foods, or from protein powder, all has the same thermic effect.  It doesn’t matter if it’s solid or liquid or comes from powder or steak (assuming the same amount of protein).  The thermic effect is unrelated to the form in which the macronutrient is eaten.  So we’re not talking about other factors that may also effect satiety, gastric emptying and so on, like fiber content, fats, roughage, the volume of food, etc.

Example:  a glass of milk would have whey and casein proteins.  But you can also mix protein powders of whey and casein with water.  If the protein amounts and ratios are equal, you have the same thermic effect of the protein in both cases, and it will take roughly 25% equivalence of those protein calories for your body to digest that protein amount.  However the milk will also have carbs and fats which can slow digestion and effect hormones which may also increase satiety.  And typically the same amount of milk would have more volume, thus helping to fill you up.  Those other elements – fats, carbs, volume, and so on, may effect metabolism and ultimately the “Calories Out” part of the equation, but they’re independent of the thermic effect.

Also keep in mind that in the milk example above, that amount of milk would also have many more calories than the protein-powder-equivalent shake.  Thus the increased satiety of milk (over a water + protein powder shake) from the fats, carbs, increased volume, and hormone response of drinking milk may be counter-balanced by the increased calories of the milk.  So it may equal out in that particular scenario.

Will go into more detail in other sections, especially issues such as how long it takes protein to digest, spiking blood amino acid levels and subsequent muscle protein synthesis (and optimally timing it with your workouts), and issues of mTOR activation and what that may mean for those interested in longevity.

 

Stimulants & Supplements

Certain stimulants and supplements can increase calorie burning, boost metabolism, or in some way, shape, or form, effect body composition.  There are obviously dangerous and/or illegal substances that can effect calorie burning and muscle building… that’s not what we’re talking about here.  We’re talking about ‘regular,’ over the counter supplements, substances found in regular foods (certain spices, for example), or commonly accepted stimulants (caffeine, in coffee, for example).

One popular example is combining caffeine, ephedrine, and nicotine.  Some people combine coffee, an over the counter like bronkaid (contains ephedrine), and nicotine gum.  Studies has shown a metabolic boost of as high as 7%.  This combination also suppresses appetite.

NOTE:  the “ECA” stack and related versions of it – ephedrine, caffeine, nicotine, and so on – may be dangerous under certain conditions.  In the 90’s some people actually died while using this combination… yet it turns out in most/all of the cases, the person was using too much, was dehydrated, exercising under extremely hot conditions, and/or had a pre-existing heart condition.  Caution should be used before using any sort of supplement, especially stimulants.

 

Honorable mention:  Hormone status

One’s hormone status can effect metabolism.  Higher or lower levels of testosterone or thyroid can speed up or slow down the metabolism.  People with clinically low thyroid levels for example, will have a harder time losing weight, because their metabolism is slower.

 

 

 

Chart:  Surplus vs Deficit

 

 

SUMMARY:

• Energy In vs Energy Out is the overriding factor in building up or burning off tissue
• All food consumed is the “Energy In” part of the equation
• Everything that requires energy in in the “Energy Out” part of the equation
  • maintaining one’s tissues (organs, muscle, fat) makes up our resting metabolic rate
  • NEAT or “non exercise activity thermogenesis” can burn thousands of calories a day
  • cold exposure, especially at higher intensities, can burn hundreds of calories an hour
  • exercise can burn calories, but also increase muscle, which in turn increases resting metabolism
  • the thermic effect of food is the quality of food, especially protein, where it takes energy simply to digest it
  • hormonal status can influence one’s metabolic rate
  • stimulants such as caffeine can cause a slight increase to metabolism
  • food, exercise, and cold thermogenesis may all effect hormones in such a way that can effect fat burning and muscle building
• Our bodies are in a constant state of building up and breaking down; body composition is the net result of those interactions over time
• The ultimate goal is to maintain or build muscle, while burning off fat

 

 

The Hormonal Effects of Food

Food, exercise, and cold thermogenesis can have a profound impact on one’s hormones.  And this hormonal response can have a tremendous impact on fat and muscle levels.

Food intake can directly influence one’s leptin levels, insulin sensitivity, growth hormones, blood glucose levels, muscle tissue, appetite, mood, cravings, metabolism, and overall cognitive and mental state.

The Hormones and how they’re effected:

 

Leptin

Leptin is a hormone released by fat cells, and acts on receptors in the hypothalamus of the brain.  Leptin levels increase when you eat, especially when you eat carbs.  Leptin tells your brain that you’ve had enough food and that you don’t need any more for a while.  It lowers appetite.  Leptin also increases metabolism, boosting your overall calorie burning for a while.

So when you eat, your fat cells release leptin and your leptin levels go up.
This increases satiety so you’re no longer hungry.
It also increases metabolism, so that you can burn off some of that food you just ate.

Leptin serves to keep you at the same weight (fat levels) and is directly related to one’s “Set Point” (described below).

So leptin directly effects hunger and metabolism.  How much you want to eat, and how much your body will burn.

Cutting carbs and cutting calories can drastically lower your leptin levels, even within days of starting a diet (caloric deficit).  When your leptin drops, your hunger increases.  It can even go into full blown cravings.  It’s your body’s way of trying to force you to eat and regain any fat you lost.

Since leptin is released from fat tissue, guess what happens when you reduce your overall bodyfat levels?  You have less fat, you have less leptin to release and go to your brain.  So again, that means increased hunger and slower metabolism.  So your body is trying to get you to eat more, to restore the fat you lost.  It’s a survival mechanism that fights fat loss.

To repeat:  when you eat, your body releases leptin.  This tells you you’re full, and it also increases your metabolism for a while.  And when you cut calories, your leptin levels drop below normal.  This increases hunger, and also lowers your metabolism, making it easier to store more fat.

This is how the leptin hormone system keeps us at a constant weight, and is a large component of our “set point.”

Set Point – a person’s “natural” body fat levels.  The physiological mechanism where our bodies use hormones, behaviors, and neurochemistry to have us eat a certain amount of food to keep us within our ‘normal’ levels of body fat.

Settling Point — our habits and behaviors, environment, beliefs, and so on, that consciously and unconsciously inform our eating, our activity, and anything else that maintains our current body composition.  Set point is physiological.  Settling point is is (determined by the) behavioral.

If we try and lose weight (go below our set points) our bodies increase hunger and slow metabolism, trying to get us to regain the weight.  If we overeat (go above our set points), our bodies decrease hunger and speed up metabolism, trying to get us to lose that weight.  Both processes are designed to keep us at our normal, natural body fat levels.

Can we change our set points?  Probably not.  But we can change our Settling points.

Obviously different people have different set points, and most people’s set points creep up as we age.  It’s well known that one can raise their set points; if one overeats, gains weight, and stays at that increased weight, that will eventually become their new physiological set point, and their bodies will work to keep them at that new, heavier weight.  Whether or not we can lower our set points is still debatable.  There are obviously many, many cases of folks who lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off for life.  This can’t be simply a matter of willpower.  Even a change of fundamental behaviors (Settling point) might not explain such changes; some would argue that only a lowered set point would allow one to keep at the lower weight for a lifetime without suffering through constant cravings and food obsession.  This implies one can change their set points.   It’s also been recently implied that one can change their set points by staying at the new weight for an extended period (at least a year), though others point out that even after 7 years at a lower weight, some subjects still experienced a lower-than-normal resting metabolic rate, which would serve as their body trying to get them to regain the fat they lost.

 

Leptin responds to insulin.  Insulin levels are raised when we eat food, but especially proteins, and most of all, carbohydrates.  This is one of the reasons most formal diets incorporate ‘cheat meals’ or carb re-feeds… to try and boost leptin levels (by spiking insulin) and thus reducing cravings and overall hunger.  The problem is that most diets allow only one refeed or cheat meal per week.  Cheat meals only temporarily boost leptin, maybe for a day or two.  The boost does not last all week until the next cheat meal.  Thus cheat meals are only somewhat effective.  And the more weight you lose, the lower your leptin goes, the more cravings you can have, the more preoccupied with food you can become.  This is why the Body Recomp plan incorporates carbs into most days, and massive refeeds every 3-4 days, so as to try and maintain normal leptin (and thyroid) levels.  More on that on the “Body Recomp plan principles.”

 

Leptin resistance – why overweight people are still hungry

Some people are resistant to the effects of leptin.  When they eat, they’re not as satisfied or filled up as fast or easily as those more receptive to leptin.  Their metabolism doesn’t boost, they don’t automatically burn off some of those calories (and they’re not subconsciously driven to increase their NEAT either).

Why is this?  They’re experiencing leptin resistance.

Our bodies adapt to just about everything.  This also occurs on the cellular level.  Within our physiology, if we experience too much of a substance, our bodies may adapt by down-regulating the receptors for that particular substance, so that the cells will receive less of it.  This can happen with leptin too.  So the hypothalamus in our brains that receive the leptin molecules, it reduces its ability to accept the leptin.  Now one is resistant to leptin.  So even if they eat, even if their leptin goes up, their brains don’t register all of it.  So they’re not as satisfied as they should be, their metabolism doesn’t increase, and so on.

This allows them to get fatter, or at least more efficiently maintains their fat levels.  Being obese usually goes along with being leptin resistant.

The question is:  Is this genetic, or is it learned and adapted through behaviors?  And can it be ‘fixed?’

There is no clear answer yet, but the current view is that leptin resistance can occur through either genetics, or learned behaviors, or probably most commonly, a combination of both.  You may have a genetic predisposition to be leptin resistant.  Food won’t be quite as satiating, it won’t boost your metabolism quite as much after you eat, it may take less of a caloric deficit to induce cravings, and so on.  Then on top of that genetic starting point, you’re raised in an environment where you don’t eat the most filling, nutritious, satisfying food.  Maybe food is used as a reward system.  Maybe you heard the old, “Don’t get up until you finish everything on your plate!”  Maybe you learned to use food as therapy, self-medicating with food, using food to boost emotions.  (everyone has done this at some time to some degree or another)

Combine those two factors – genetic and environment / learned behaviors – and you have a recipe for leptin resistance.  A body that wants to eat more food, and doesn’t want to burn off it’s own fat.  (There are of course many other variables involved, this is the simplified version)

Can it be fixed?  Yes.  If it couldn’t, no one would ever lose and keep off weight.  Yet many do just that.  The only question is what path one takes, what tools they use, and how long it takes them to get to their goal body composition.

 

Thyroid

Thyroid hormone is directly linked to metabolism, as well as one’s energy levels, and even how hot or cold one feels.  Higher thyroid, and it’s much easier to lose weight, feel warm, and be energized.  Lower thyroid, and you’ll always feel cold, you can’t lose weight, all while feeling tired and lethargic.  Thyroid levels are directly related to weight loss and gain.

Thyroid hormones are release by the thyroid gland, located in your neck.

A caloric deficit can cause a drop in thyroid levels, even after only a few days, resulting in a 15% drop in metabolism in female test subjects.  (However studies on athletes doing intermittent fasting showed no drop in thyroid after one day)  Doesn’t matter if the deficit is from dieting, or from exercise, it still happens.  This hasn’t been tested with a deficit induced from cold thermogenesis.  Would be interesting to test, since cold exposure can increase thyroid levels in animal models.  Perhaps creating at least part of the deficit via the Cool Fat Burner will attenuate the calorie-deficit-induced drop in thyroid levels?

Refeeds can also boost thyroid levels.  If one has been experiencing significant calorie deficits – from diet, exercise, NEAT, cold thermogenesis, etc. — for a long enough period of time (at least a week, probably) and then have a carb refeed, they’ll often experience almost absurd levels of heat for hours after the refeed.  This is proof that your thyroid levels had plummeted, and that the refeed brought them back up at least for a time.

 

Insulin & Blood Glucose

When we consume and digest foods, the body needs a way to transport those nutrients into the various cells of our bodies.  Insulin is a hormone released from the pancreas when we eat food.  The more our blood glucose goes up, the more insulin we release.  Insulin fits into receptors of various tissues, and pulls in the nutrients that you just ate, from your blood stream and into the cells to be used or stored.

Different foods raise blood glucose at different levels.  Typically the faster a food is digested, that higher it can spike blood glucose levels.  Fats have the lowest effect on blood glucose levels.  Proteins have a moderate effect.  Carbohydrates have the largest effect.

NOTE:  the effects just listed are when testing ‘pure’ versions of those nutrients.  When eating whole foods, this pretty much never happens.  You’ll rarely eat just some fat, or just some protein, or just some carbs.  Even sources of each have a mix.  Whole food carb sources will also have fiber, roughage, resistant starch, and other components that slow down digestion (and thus blood glucose levels will be slower to rise).  Whole food protein sources will combine a combination of amino acid types, not just a single type.  So again, digestion will be slower and blood glucose lower.  Even if you’re making a protein shake, it’s a good idea to mix protein powder types.  Whey protein digests fast and causes an insulin spike (and crash) similar to simple carbs.  But add casein protein with the whey (in the shake) and digestion is slowed and blood sugar doesn’t spike the same way.

So carbs, especially simple carbs, tend to spike blood glucose and subsequent insulin levels the most.  When insulin is raised, it can increase satiety.  As discussed above, it will also boost leptin.  It also has an anti-catabolic effect.  That means raised insulin helps prevent muscle protein breakdown.  However raised insulin may not always be a good thing.

For some, raising insulin may mean a subsequent crash in blood glucose levels.  This means grogginess, lack of energy, and even cravings for more carbs.  Most everyone has experienced the phenomenon of eating deserts and junk food… then feeling groggy and tired afterwards.  This is usually thought to be due to the crash in blood sugar.  In fact several diets capitalize on this, encouraging one to eat their carbs at night, and using the grogginess to help get to sleep!

Insulin Sensitivity – how responsive your body’s tissues are to insulin

Insulin Resistance – when your body stops reacting properly to the effects of insulin, resulting in excessively high blood glucose levels

In the same way that our bodies can become desensitized to leptin, the same thing can happen to our reaction to insulin.  If a person has chronically elevated blood glucose levels… eventually their body may down regulate how it responds to insulin.  It will no longer transport blood glucose into the various cells to be used as fuel.  That blood glucose stays in the blood stream causing excessively high levels.

If this persists, it can be a major contributor of developing diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes – appears to be largely genetic.  The pancreas stops producing insulin.  The patient needs to inject insulin when they eat so as to transport the glucose and nutrients in their blood stream into the various tissues of their body, since their own body (pancreas) can no longer make insulin.

Type 2 Diabetes – can have genetic factors, but is largely due to being obese and having chronically high blood glucose levels over time.   This is similar to what is addressed above.  Insulin resistance.  (It’s also been shown that one may not have to be obese to develop Type 2 diabetes – those who have chronically elevated blood sugar, even at ‘normal’ body weights, can develop Type 2 diabetes!)

So foods can increase blood glucose.  Proteins and especially carbs can really increase blood glucose levels.  If these levels are chronically elevated, your body can adapt and try and down-regulate your cells’ ability to take in any more glucose, leading to insulin resistance.  This feedback loop persists, and your blood glucose levels stay high.  This can not only lead to Type 2 diabetes, but may increase systemic inflammation throughout the body’s tissues, contributing to everything from heart disease to increasing the chances of getting certain types of cancer and overall shortening of one’s lifespan!  They now even think that chronically elevated BGL may be a contributing factor to developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Does this mean that carbs are bad and should be avoided?

First, it depends on what you mean by “carbs.”  Second, it depends on who you are.

Fibrous vegetables have carbs.
Tubers have carbs, but also have a lot of fiber and resistant starch.
Pastas and cereals and junk foods all have carbs.
When carbs are digested, they’re always broken down eventually into glucose by the time they get to the blood stream.  But even though different foods may have carbs, they can also have different amounts of carbs, as well as contain fiber, roughage, resistant starch, and other factors that slow down eating and digestion, positively effect gut health, and so on.

Thus a carb is not always just a carb, functionally speaking.  The type of food it comes in is important.

Second, it depends on who you are, as to whether or not you can eat carbs, and what type of carbs.  This is to say it probably depends highly on your current body composition, musculature and muscle function, exercise patterns, levels of cold-adaptation, insulin sensitivity, and overall dietary patterns.  (and of course, related genetic predispositions)

Look at these pics over time of me

 

 

To the left was when I was fatter, little muscle, did not exercise, was drinking alcohol frequently, and did no cold thermogenesis.  I could not handle any carbs.  Any carbs would cause a huge BGL spike, I’d feel groggy an hour or so later.  Overall low energy levels.  And eating carbs meant I would be wanting more carbs.

Towards the middle, I was slowly building up muscle and burning off fat.  I was doing a combination of exercises on the Strength/Endurance spectrum talked about earlier under the EIEO section.  And I was doing cold thermogenesis with the Cool Fat Burner.

All of these things can cause positive adaptations in the body that allows it to more easily burn off blood glucose levels.  They force the glucose into your muscles and brown fat, to be burned up as fuel.  Thus they increase insulin sensitivity all the benefits that brings.  Overall resting BGL began to drop.  Energy balanced out and stabilized.  Mood was elevated.

During that time, I could easily eat “slow” carbs and be fine.

Slow carbs

– carbs that have a lot of fiber, resistant starch, and roughage in the foods.  Legumes and cruciferous veggies are the most common examples.   The fibrous components not only slow down digestion (thus reducing the big blood sugar spike and making it easier for your body to use the glucose in a timely manner) but those fibrous elements can also feed one’s “gut biome” which may indirectly help with everything from body composition to mood to overall health.  (Will address below under “Gut Biome”)

To the right-most recent pics, I can eat any kind of carb, and it just makes me stronger, leaner, and fuels my workouts and CFB sessions.  Please note, I still strategically ate carbs only at certain meals, usually post-workout, pre-CFB session.  But the carbs I can now eat – I can eat ANY kind of carb, it barely spikes my BGL, my waistline will not budge, and the next day, my workouts are a little better.  (see “Body Recomp” chapter for details)  I now maintain this level of muscularity, leanness, and carb intake.

Where you are on the spectrum of body fat, muscle content, exercise capacity, cold adaptation and Cool Fat Burner use will directly translate to what kind and how many carbs you can eat.

If you’re overweight, carrying too much fat, muscles aren’t built up and you’re not used to working out and you have no cold adaptation… when you eat carbs, they’ll spike your BGL, you’ll feel groggy and terrible later, your energy levels will be all over the place, you’ll probably crave for more carbs, and you’ll just keep putting on more fat… never mind the health risks this will bring.  Someone at this level should not eat carbs.  Removing carbs alone will help them lose fat.  They won’t even need to worry about CICO (counting calories).

Once you begin to build up muscle while losing your fat, all the while adding cold adaptation, your bodily tissues will suck up blood glucose and burn it off.  You’ll be able to strategically add carbs into your diet, and they’ll fuel you.  (also remember, carbs can boost leptin, increasing satiety and metabolic rate for a while)  Keep in mind that this process – increasing insulin sensitivity over time by burning off fat and increasing muscle tissue and cold adaptation – will not happen in a few weeks.  It will take many months.  One did not get in their current state in a few weeks, they’re not going to change it in a few weeks.

 

Genetically predisposed to process carbs… or not

Interestingly, recent evidence implies that some are genetically predisposed to better process carbs, thus genetics may play a factor as well in one’s abilities to eat carbs.

 

Circadian rhythms and carb intake

Also keep in mind insulin sensitivity is also tied to our circadian rhythms, which is our biological clock that governs our wake/sleep cycle.  All of our bodily tissues are higher insulin sensitive in the morning.  This makes sense; when you sleep, your body isn’t getting any more food.  So when you do wake and it’s ready to take in nutrients, it will be more receptive to those nutrients.

This phenomenon – higher insulin sensitivity in the morning, is why several dietary plans advise one to eat all of their carbs at night, preferably after a workout.  (see “Advanced Concepts” chapter)

Here’s how it would work:  in the morning your body is highly insulin sensitive.  That means not only muscle, but also fat, is receptive to insulin.  So the idea is that if you eat carbs, it will be easier for your body to store fat in your fat cells, because they’re so responsive to store nutrients in the morning.  But if you eat fats and protein (but no carbs) your insulin doesn’t spike and you can’t store the nutrients in your fat cells as easily.  Also since our bodies tend to burn whatever the dominant macronutrient is, and you’re eating fats (and proteins), that’s what it will burn.  The hope in the morning then, is that you’ll eat a little fat, which your body will burn, then continue to burn body fat during the next few hours.

But later in the day, your body becomes less sensitive to insulin.  All of the tissues do.

But there’s a way to ‘trick’ the system.  Both exercise and cold thermogenesis can temporarily increase glucose and nutrient uptake in certain tissues!  Exercise works the muscles, cold thermogenesis works both the muscles and brown fat.  This is called “non-insulin dependent glucose uptake,” because your body will pull glucose into the muscles and brown fat, but without insulin.

Exercise forces glucose uptake into the muscles.  The Cool Fat Burner forces glucose into the muscles and brown fat.  And so your regular subcutaneous white fat, it gets none of the nutrients!  It can’t store any fat, as it is still insulin resistant.  This is why several diets have advised saving your carbs for night time after exercise.  And if you still get groggy from the carbs, that’s ok because it’s bedtime.  While there are some possible problems with this scenario – namely that if you’re in a huge caloric surplus, you’ll still gain fat, regardless of when you eat your fats and carbs – the general idea here, that insulin sensitivity is tied to our circadian rhythms, and this subtle yet important principle is a component to the Body Recomp plan.

Longevity

The hormonal effects of food may have a direct effect on our longevity.  Chronically increased blood glucose levels, excessive protein consumption, and constant caloric surpluses may speed up aging on the cellular level.  However there are ways to counter every one of these factors, even while eating simple carbs. Will go into much more detail in “Advanced Concepts” and “Longevity” chapters.

 

Growth Hormone

(or ‘Human Growth Hormone,’ HGH)  growth hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland which rests on the underside of the brain.  HGH rebuilds all the body’s tissues.  As we age, our growth hormone levels naturally decline.  Many hormone replacement doctors rightly or wrongly, prescribe HGH to supposedly help their patients regain a youthful vigor.

Growth hormone is inversely related to blood sugar levels.  As your blood glucose drops, your growth hormone levels will gradually rise.  During fasts growth hormone elevates significantly.  Certain types of exercise can also increase growth hormone.

Many would claim that having peak HGH levels is critical to optimal health and living.

 

Grelin

Grelin is often called the “hunger hormone.”  Ghrelin is a peptide hormone release from the stomach tissue when you’ve gone without food for a while.  It travels to the brain and triggers hunger, telling you it’s time to eat.  It also increases growth hormone.  (remember above, where we saw that HGH increases as food decreases… this is tied to ghrelin)

In animal models injected with ghrelin to keep their levels constantly high, their metabolisms slowed and their bodies became more efficient at storing fat.  They were no doubt super hungry as well!

Ghrelin has also been shown to interfere with decision making.

Interestingly, there is evidence to show that ketogenic diets (high fat, moderate protein, little to no carbs) actually reduce ghrelin levels.  This is probably one of the mechanisms by which ketogenic diets allow their users to lose weight; natural appetite suppression which means they eat less, resulting in the required caloric deficit.  However not everyone on a ketogenic diet experiences appetite suppression.  No doubt those who do find keto diets highly effective… but those who don’t experience the appetite suppression, keto diets probably won’t work so well for them.

One amusing study also tested the short-term psychological effect of food expectations on hunger and grelin levels.  Subjects were divided into two groups, each given a huge milkshake.  One was told it was an indulgent, high calorie mega desert, totaling 620 calories.  The other was told it was a healthy, low-calorie shake, totaling only 140 calories.  In reality, all shakes had the exact same number of calories – 380 calories.

The subjects then ranked their particular shake on factors such as ‘healthiness’ and how satiating it was and so on.  The big irony though was the subjects’ ghrelin levels.  The “indulgent” shake group, their ghrelin levels rose before the meal in anticipation (increasing their hunger), and then had the highest drop afterwards (implying they were more satisfied).  Remember – both groups’ shakes had the exact same number of calories!  There should have been no differences in ghrelin levels!  This goes to show the powerful effect psychological expectancy and emotional bonds to food can have, even on our hormones!  One thing though – the ‘indulgent’ group did not report higher satiation levels then the ‘healthy’ lower calorie (and lower ghrelin levels) group.

So even though they had a bigger drop in ghrelin, they didn’t experience a significant change in fullness afterwards.  Keep in mind, ghrelin is not the only factor in appetite and satiety.

 

Sustainability

What good is a dietary plan if you can’t stick to it?  Same goes for exercise, cold thermogenesis, and anything else.  If something isn’t maintainable, the results will not be sustainable.  This of course does not mean that one must find a plan or system that they must rigidly stick to forever.  One can obviously cycle in and out of different plans and setups.  The most important factor in all of this, is sustainability, and the only way you will sustain anything is to find something that works for you and that you enjoy.

Ironically, in studies and experiments, when they find long-term weight loss, it’s always from subjects who find ways to make their system work for them, or find a system they enjoy.  It’s not the system or the diet or the workout routine or the cold thermogenesis method… it’s the person that is important.

SUMMARY:

• Food, exercise, and cold thermogenesis can all have a tremendous impact on hormones, which in turn impact our body composition
• Leptin is released from fat cells, especially after eating carbs
  • Leptin can boost metabolism and fat burning, while reducing appetite
  • Chronically obese tend to be leptin resistant, thus eating doesn’t boost metabolism or reduce hunger as effectively in them
  • When in a caloric deficit, leptin levels drop, slowing metabolism and increasing cravings
  • If one loses a lot of fat, this also tends to lower resting leptin levels
  • Carb refeeds can be used to boost leptin levels for a few days
• Thyroid hormone can influence metabolism, energy levels, and perceptions of warmth
  • Caloric deficits can cause thyroid to drop, slowing metabolism, lowering energy, and making one feel cold
  • Refeeds, especially carb refeeds, can radically boost thyroid levels
  • Women who are in severe caloric deficits and do a lot of cardio can experience significant drops in thyroid levels in days
• Insulin is released by the pancreas to help the body’s cells take in glucose and nutrients
  • All foods increase insulin, though carbs typically have the largest effect
  • Insulin can be anabolic, as it builds tissue
  • Chronically elevated insulin can be problematic, and is tied to obesity, diabetes, certain types of cancer, and aging
  • Those who do not respond well to carbs can experience energy crashes and carb cravings
  • Fasting, low-carb dieting, exercise, and cold thermogenesis can all improve one’s insulin sensitivity
  • Insulin sensitivity goes by one’s circadian clock.  For those more or less lean, insulin sensitivity is highest in the morning, lowest at night.  For the obese, this is reversed.
• Growth hormone rebuilds tissue
  • GH levels tend to be inversely related to blood sugar levels; for example, when one fasts, GH levels rise
  • Anaerobic exercise tends to raise GH levels (though a PWO carb meal will lower them again, since it will raise insulin)
• Sustainability is arguably the most imporant element to any self-improvement regimen

 

 

Related factors:

1. Gut biome
2. Genetics, body structure, etc.
3. Learned behaviors, environment, etc

 

1. Gut Biome

The Gut Biome is the hundreds of billions of necessary, helpful bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tract.  These positive bacteria play an intricate part in our overall function and physiology.

The gut biome produces a majority of our neurotransmitters.  Because of this, research is focusing on using the gut biome to fight conditions such as depression.

The gut biome is a major driver of our immune system.  Those whose diets support a healthy and diverse gut biome have measurably stronger immune responses to potential infection and disease.

The gut biome is related to insulin sensitivity and how we process calories.  In animal models, if certain gut bacteria are transplanted from obese to lean animals, the lean animals gain weight and lose their insulin sensitivity.  Conversely, if obese mice were fed bacteria coming from the lean mice, the obese mice were able to eat more calories and not gain weight.  Because of this, the gut biome is being considered as a tool to help fight obesity.

In both the “Quick Start” chapter, and the “Body Recomp” plan, we address how to eat in such a way to maximize your gut biome.  In “Tricks & Hacks” we cover this with the “Fiber Shake.”

 

2.  Genetics, body structure, etc

There are many physical traits we’re born with.  These will help determine and in some ways limit our physical makeup and appearance.

For example, muscle fiber composition.  Our muscles are made up of muscle fibers that contract, causing movement.  These fibers can come in “slow” and “fast twitch” type fibers (with several variants or sub-types on the fast twitch type).  These fibers have dramatically different work capacity and energy and metabolic demands, as well as differences in sheer size.

The size of the “muscle belly” can be drastically different from person to person.  So some people will simply have naturally larger muscles compared to someone with naturally smaller muscles bellies, given the same amount of training.

“Satellite cells.”  There are satellite cells surrounding muscle tissue.  They are undifferentiated stem cells that can be converted into different tissue.  When you train, you force those satellite cells to repair your muscle tissue, form new muscle cells and so on.  We do not all have equal amounts of satellite cells.  Some have more, others have less.  Those with more muscle satellite cells can have a more robust muscular system.

Limb length, torso length, joint and connective tissue thickness.  Different limb lengths, torso length and shape and so on, can radically effect not only appearance and the visual impact of gaining or losing muscle or fat, but it can have a huge impact on athletic performance.  Someone with shorter limbs may have an easier time “filling out” those arms and legs and looking more muscular… but may also be easier look fatter if they gain fat.  On the other hand, longer limbed people may have a hard time gaining a bulky muscular look, regardless of how hard they train.  Those with thicker joints and connective tissue may appear to have larger muscles, for example larger forearms or calves, without even training.  (this would also probably be an issue of having large muscle bellies, mentioned above)

The impact on athletics is huge as well.  How many short and stocky world-class sprinters are there?  How many long-limbed bench-press champions are there?  Different body types have their own strengths and weaknesses.  Longer limbs usually mean better running and jumping and pulling.  Shorter limbs tend to be better at pushing motions, especially strength and explosive pushing.

Some people have genes that make them more easily process carbohydrates, while others lack those salivary enzymes. Some people are naturally more insulin resistant.  Some people appear to be leptin resistant.  Some people appear to be naturally inclined to engage in more NEAT on any given day, but especially after eating.  Others seem naturally inclined to reduce their NEAT if they increase exercise.  Guess which group is naturally lean, and which tends to have trouble losing weight?

But how much of this is genetic and how much is learned and habituated behavior?

 

3. Environment, learned behaviors, etc.

“Genetics load the gun, behaviors pull the trigger.”

We mentioned insulin resistance and leptin resistance and altered gut flora above, under genetics… but how much of that is not from genetics, but from behaviors?

Eating excessive carbs, especially simple carbs, especially in the absence of fibers and resistance starches, especially without appropriate exercise or cold exposure, and magnified all the more by already being obese… all of that will cause insulin resistance.  Having chronically high blood glucose levels and obesity, that can cause leptin resistance.  All manner of factors – from antibiotics to no prebiotics in the diet, to being born via cesarean section – can all mess with a person’s gut microbiome.

Those are not genetics, but are all behaviors.  We have choice over those things happening (well, except for being born via cesarean section).

How many people feel obligated to clean off their plate?  That is a learned behavior.

How many people feel obligated to eat as much as they can at the buffet, to “get their money’s worth?”  That is a learned behavior.

How many people use food to self-medicate for stress or anxiety or depression?  That coping mechanism is a learned behavior.

Is your kitchen filled with junk food?  Do you have huge plates?  Guess what happens when you see junk food every time you walk through your kitchen or you have a huge plate every time you go to put food on it?

How is your sleep?  Disordered sleep patterns disrupt one’s circadian rhythms, and are related to diabetes, obesity, and certain types of cancer.  Mice who are exposed to blue light late at night have lower brown fat activity and spontaneously gain fat.  Sleep is a behavior.

How much of your diet is actual food, how much is food-like substances?

What about your support environment — are you around people moving in the same direction as you, with similar goals, mindsets, and energy… or are they going in the opposite direction you want to go?  How will you achieve your goals if you’re constantly having to fight against being pulled in the opposite direction of your goals?

 

SUMMARY:

• The microflora but biome within our gastrointestinal tract has a direct impact on insulin sensitivity, neurotransmitter production, and the immune system
• There are many genetic “structural” qualities we are born with that will effect how our bodies can function and what they will look like
  • Limb length, muscle belly size, muscle fiber type, number of muscle satellite cells will all effect performance and appearance
• Environment and learned behaviors can make or break a person’s journey towards self-transformation

 

Hierarchy of Importance

of the effects of food on body composition

 

Food – Macro-nutrients – SUMMARY

1. Protein

• TEF (not related to fiber or roughage)
• Muscle preservation
• Satiety
• mTOR
• 4 cals/gram

 

2. Carbohydrates

• Glycogen
• Glucose / fuel
• Leptin & thyroid
• Fiber, resistant starches, gut health
• 4 cals/gram
• Individual variance in tolerance

 

3. Fats

• Types of fats
• Individual variance in Satiety
• 9 cals/gram

 

This is a culmination of all top-notch knowledge and practices from dieting, exercise, cold thermogenesis, and any other factors that can effect body composition.

This is not a plan for beginners.  However anyone can pick and choose principles and strategies from this chapter or the “Advanced Concepts” chapter and try to integrate into their own routine as they see fit.  Men should probably be below 18% BF and women below 23% BF and be in exercise shape before starting these routines exactly as they’re described here.

This chapter is not meant to be a step-by-step instructional guide per se.  This is a case study showing how one can incorporate top-notch strategies of diet, training, cold thermogenesis, tricks and hacks, all into a single unified method of body transformation.  This is taking the principles from the “Advanced Concepts” chapter and applying them in a way that gives proven results.

Please note, I cannot answer questions or give advice to others.    This is taking all the info in the “Advanced Concepts” chapter and applying it to myself.  Thus it is very personalized.  Each person can adapt and use for their own use as they see fit.

 

The Body Recomp Plan

There is a general ‘basic’ maintenance version of the Body Recomp plan.  Then there is a “Clean Bulk” and a “Metabolic” version of the plan.  The Clean Bulk version is designed to help me gain as much muscle as fast as possible without gaining any fat.  The Metabolic variant is designed to help me burn as much fat as fast as possible without losing any muscle.

In truth, the “maintenance” version of the Body Recomp plan is more theoretical than anything else.  It is the version I started with, but outgrew it quickly.  Now when I want to go on ‘maintenance,’ I actually do something in-between the generic maintenance plan and the Clean Bulk version.  The Metabolic version is very demanding, and I only do it for 1-3 weeks at a time, then go back to maintenance for at least a week or two.

Let’s look at the generic plan to get a grasp on the theory and principles.

 

 

 

Notice how everything is in a “wave” form over the course of the cycle.  In other words, everything starts either high or low, then switches to the other extreme by the 3^rd day.  This means on any given day I’m doing something at full intensity… but never doing all things at full intensity on any given day.

Exercise and calories (and carbs) and muscle building start high.
Fat burning and Cool Fat Burner use and protein starts low.

By the end of the cycle – the 3^rd day – muscle building and calories are low, carbs are gone, but fat burning and Cool Fat Burner use and protein intake are high.  So I start out putting my primary focus into lifting and eating in the beginning… then switch it over to fat burning and CFB use towards the end.

Here’s the problem with the basic, 3-day maintenance version of the plan, and why I eventually outgrew it – look at the exercise layout.  Its Pushes, Pulls, then rest.  Doing pushes all in one day is too much.   In this setup, “Pushes” means upper and lower body pushes.  That means hitting my legs (squats) and then also hitting my chest and triceps, all in the same workout.

Now that can be easily done if one is a beginner, or just getting back into working out after a long layoff.  But for anyone with any level of conditioning, it’s too much to hit both muscle groups in the same workout.  Simply put, a good legs workout should tire you out.  And a good Pushes workout (chest, arms, abs) should tire you out.  There’s no way to do both of them at a high level in the same workout.

So if you take Day 1 Pushes of the maintenance plan, and break it up into two separate days, we get close to the Clean Bulk variant of the plan.

 

Meals

These are my general meal layouts.  They are universal across all the days and plans.  For example, “Slow Carb” is always slow carb, as described below.  And keep in mind, I don’t count calories.

As discussed in Advanced Concepts chapter, there is a circadian rhythm to our insulin sensitivity.  For lean, non-obese subjects, insulin sensitivity goes down over the day.  Therefore we start with higher fats, and lower them over the day, while starting with lower carbs, and increasing over the day, at least on big workout days and refeeds.  On focused fat burning days, I’ll typically do a PSMF – protein sparing modified fast.  No carb ketogenic dieting is another option on cutting days.  Fasting is as well, but it is extremely difficult to build muscle while fasting.

The typical approach is:

• Mornings: High Protein, moderate to low fat / no carb
• Afternoon or evening / Post-Workout:  High protein, carb refeed or slow carb.  Little to no fats.
• Evening: High protein, slow or low carb, little to no fats.
• Protein can be lower (.7 gm/ lb bodyweight) on Anabolic surplus days, and higher (at least 1gm/ lb bodyweight) on leaner cutting fat burning Metabolic days, where I’ll be in a caloric deficit
• So there will be:
  • PSMF meals (this includes protein shakes),
  • low-carb meals,
  • ketogenic (low-carb, moderate to high fat) meals,
  • carb refeeds, (any type of carb you want) and
  • slow carb meals (high fiber, high resistant starches)

 

Breakfast –

The goal here is to get enough protein to induce MPS, and to maintain steady energy into the afternoon as well as for the workout (also in the afternoon).  Also keeping insulin low (no carbs) may have other health benefits.  This will often be a ketogenic meal, or even a PSMF meal.  Or it may be a protein shake.  Thus this is often the same type of meal I’ll eat all day on fat-burning cutting days.

Composition:
Moderate to High protein,
Moderate to high Fat,
no carb

When it is a whole foods meal, this is usually some sort of eggs with either bacon or sausage.  Can also add nuts to this meal.

Or eggs, bacon, and guacamole on turkey burgers.  (onions on the guacamole)

 

Sometimes if a person is really tired after the previous day’s glycogen depletion (metabolic cutting days always precede the Anabolic refeed day) one can cheat a little and put some carbs in this meal.  But only do if you know your workout will suffer if you don’t.  (oatmeal or oatbran is an excellent choice)

 

Otherwise I will often just do a protein shake.

Supplements:  Creatine if a protein shake.  Fish oil and vitamin D.  Sometime spirulina and mini-dose aspirin.  If I’m not worried about glycogen depletion, I might add a small amount of milk to the shake to insure there’s enough fats and calcium to help vitamin D absorption.

 

Post-Workout Meals (late Lunch) –

This is the classical carb refeed cheat meal.  Ideally one would want to eat a lot of carbs with minimal fats.  That can be tricky to find no-fat carb meals.  The goal here is to refill glycogen and boost leptin and thyroid without storing any fat.  It’s likely that any fats eaten in this meal will either store as fat, or hopefully help build muscle from the workout.

Composition:
Moderate to High protein,
High carb,
little to no fats

I’ll often use the ‘Fiber Shake’ (Hacks & Tricks chapter) before this meal, either to fill me up a little to help reduce eating too much during the refeed, or before the slow-carb meal, to add even more prebiotic elements to my gut flora.  If one is taking probiotic supplements, do so along with the Fiber Shake, a few minutes before the meal itself.

 

• Carb re-feed – keep fats as low as possible
  • Regular meal with starchy carbs; potatoes, pasta, noodles, cereal, etc
  • All you can eat buffet
  • Protein shake + Junk food
• Slow Carb
  • All carb sources must be fibrous. Legumes, cruciferous veggies, etc.
  • A focus on gut-flora prebiotic foods and deserts

 

There are no pics of junk food or all-you-can-eat buffets.  Anyone who’s seen the CFB videos has seen plenty of examples of the types and amounts of junk food I often eat for refeeds.
These are examples of “clean” refeeds.

 

Here is a ‘slow carb’ version of the above carb refeed; replace the corn with beans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice on any of these PWO refeed meals, I may then have deserts after what is pictured.  Cereal, donuts, whatever.
Or if I’m keeping it clean, I’ll go with fruits, often with zero-calorie dips and toppings.  (See the “Strawberry Crepes” under “Hacks & Tricks” chapter)

 

Supplements:  Pre-workout before the workout.  Creatine with the carb refeed if I didn’t have it with the morning protein shake, otherwise no other supplementation.  Mega-doses of vitamins can actually blunt muscle growth.

 

Dinner –

Goal here is to again induce MPS, and to have enough protein to work overnight as I sleep.  This will often be the biggest protein meal, and can often have up to 100 gm of protein, except on refeed days (“Anabolic”), since I’ll be in a surplus that day and don’t need as much protein.

Composition:
Moderate to High protein,
Low to moderate carbs or slow carbs,
No to low fats.

Since I’ve already had a big carb refeed from the PWO, leptin and thyroid will be up, glycogen restored, and I may not even be hungry.  This meal should have little to no fats, and might not even need that many carbs.  If I do have carbs, they should probably be slow carbs.

 

 

 

Otherwise I will just do a protein shake.  After the huge PWO refeed, a protein shake is often all I want to eat.

Supplements:  Multivitamin.  Melatonin before bed.

 

 

Cutting day meals:

PSMF – protein sparing modified fast

Composition:
Lean protein and little else.

Try using some of the “protein snacks” in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter.
Or use some Walden Farms BBQ sauces on lean protein sources like chicken or low fat turkey.
Low carb veggies are allowed.  (zero calorie dips are good here)

Protein shakes will often be used on PSMF days, in place of formal meals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ketogenic meals.

Moderate to high fat, moderate protein, no carb.
This entire section is largely the same as the Breakfast section.  Eggs, some (often fatty) meat source, and no carbs.

Here are some eggs, chicken sausages, and some shredded cabbage.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplements:  I do the ECA stack the mornings of cutting days.  See ‘Hacks & Tricks.’  Always creatine, often protein powders, fish oil, vitamin D, etc.  The Fiber Shake (and sometimes greens mix) are often used before a protein shake or meal as well.

 

 

Generic layout of the various days…

 

The Clean Bulk variant

The Clean Bulk is all about building muscle without gaining any fat, or even slowly losing fat.  It is a 4 day repeating cycle.  It is essentially the maintenance plan, but breaking down “Day 1 Anabolic” into two separate days, with one carb refeed and optional second refeed on Day 2.

As with all the Body Recomp variants, each cycle repeats and everything is the same except for the “light” vs “heavy” exercise.  This allows each muscle group to get worked twice a week (technically twice every 8 days), once heavy (strength range), once light (hypertrophy range).

Remember, to build muscle you need a caloric surplus.  Days 1 (and optionally Day 2 and/or 3) should have a surplus.  All three workout days also have carb refeeds.  The ideal is for the surplus to all be channeled into building muscle, and none stored as fat.

There is only one formal metabolic cutting day, Day 4.  So any fat loss must come on that one day.  (technically it could come from the Adaptive Day 3 as well, but that can be tricky, since that’s a workout day and we cannot allow ourselves to lose muscle by being in a deficit)  Thus the PSMF and high intensity Cool Fat Burner use on Day 4.  If one is trying to recomp and simultaneously lose fat on this cycle, it will mostly come from Day 4 cutting day.

Question – “How much of a surplus on Anabolic Day(s) 1 & 2?”

Answer – That depends.  I don’t count calories.  There’s no exact answer here, but most experts usually say around 10-15% above TDEE for the day.  So for most people, that would be 200-300 extra calories.  I’ll make my PWO meal as big as I want it, and eat whatever I want.  Ideally I should eat low-fat carb treats… but a lot of the things I like still have fat in them (cakes, pies, donuts, ice cream, etc) though the bread with honey, oatbran, strawberry crepes, and sweet potatoes w/ 50/50 brown sugar/splenda have no fat and are excellent carb refeed snacks (see ‘Hacks & Tricks’).

So the first meal (breakfast) and last meal (night) will not be extravagant meals.  All the surplus will come in the carb refeed, which is the post-workout meal.

The Clean Bulk spends all of its time on the strength to hypertrophy area of the spectrum, with optional LISS work.

Daily Overview

Day 1 Anabolic

• Legs Pushes, heavy
• Carb refeed
• Little to no CFB use

 

Day 2 Anabolic of Adaptive

• Pushes (chest, triceps, abs, occasional shoulders), heavy
• Carb refeed or slow carb
• Little CFB intensity

 

Day 3 Anabolic or adaptive

• Pulls (back, biceps), or full body pulls (including legs; hamstrings, glutes), light
• Carb refeed or slow carb
• Moderate CFB intensity

 

Day 4 Metabolic / Cutting

• No exercise
• PSMF or keto
• High intensity hardcore CFBuse

 

Then repeat the cycle, but switch ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ — notice this allows me to hit every major muscle group with variations on the primary compound lifts (conjugate method; variations of the bench, squat, and deadlift) twice a week (once every 4 days).  One workout at strength (less than 6 reps per set), and once hypertrophy (8-15 reps per set) for the primary compound lifts (technically, lift variants, again as per the conjugate method).

Re: alternating both rep range and exercise selection:  I’ll also do different exercises per muscle group between each 4-day cycle, so that not only are ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ alternating for each muscle group (over 8 days, made up of the two 4 day cycles), but so is the exercise for each muscle on each of those consecutive 4 day cycles.  Example for legs:  “heavy Legs pushes” may be back squats or front squats, all done for less than 6 reps per set (6 or less reps = heavy/strength rep range) for around 30 reps total for that exercise (meaning I might do 3 X 10reps, 5 X 6 reps, 6 X 5 reps, or some combination, so that no set is over 6 reps per set, until I hit 30 total reps).  The next 4-day cycle legs workout, “light Legs pushes” may be split squats or sissy squats or bottom-up front squats or maybe negatives, all done with 8-15 reps per set (light/hypertrophy rep range), for around 40-60 total reps for that exercise.  (special notice; negatives don’t have to reach 30 total reps; the TUT (time under tension) of negatives falls under ‘hypertrophy’ range work, but due to the demands of negatives, you’ll do far less total reps than normal hypertrophy rep range work).

The exercise selection goes on for 3 weeks, then changes to new exercises, often variants of the traditional compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press).  This is the Conjugate Method (see glossary entry or Advanced Concepts for more details).

One can keep doing the “light/hypertrophy” range work, switching every 4th week, almost indefinitely.  However the “heavy/strength” work is demanding.  It’s easy to plateau and burn out, even with switching exercises and using the conjugate method as we are here.  One can probably do two to three 3-week cycles of the strength work, (total 6 to 9 weeks) before having to cycle off for a few weeks.  When it’s time to take a break from the heavy/strength days, one switches out the strength work, and instead chooses one of the “exotic methods” such as static hold isometrics, super-slow reps, super-high reps, or speed work.  (see “Tricks & Hacks” chapter for video demonstrations of the exotic methods exercises).

After two to three weeks of substituting the exotic methods in place of the heavy/strength days, one can re-introduce the heavy lifting back in for a few more 3 week cycles.  If one still doesn’t feel up to it, then simply do the light/hypertrophy work in place of the heavy/strength days.  Thus all exercises will be in the light/hypertrophy range (8-15 reps per set, for 40-60 total reps per workout for that muscle group) for a time, until you either do another mini-cycle of exotic methods, or re-introduce at least one 3-week heavy/strength cycle.

Note:  alternating between Strength vs Hypertrophy work only applies to the primary compound lifts, which start off each workout.  All of the accessory work is almost always in the hypertrophy rep range.  So your bench, squat, and deadlift variants alternate between Strength and Hypertrophy rep ranges per workout.  However the smaller accessory exercises (isolated back, shoulder, arms work, etc) should pretty much always be in the hypertrophy range per set (8-15 reps) for around a total of around 30 reps.  The accessory exercises don’t need to go up to 50 or more reps.  Keep in mind, you’re already indirectly hitting those muscles in the compound lifts that you start your workout with.  If you do for example Romanian Deadlifts (deadlift variant, as per the conjugate method), you’re already working practically all of your pulling muscles.  So after, once you move on to the accessory work, you don’t need to do as much for your lats, rhomboids, traps, and biceps, as they’ll already be pre-fatigued and stimulated for the first exercise compound lift.

This method allows one to hit each muscle group twice in 8 days.
It allows one to hit both strength and hypertrophy range work.
It allows for more extreme and unique stimulus and recovery via the “exotic methods” exercises.
It allows for “general physical preparedness” by using a variety of exercises, which switch and vary every three weeks.
It allows for constant progress in at least two or more variables; you’re constantly getting stronger and more muscular, along with more conditioned and more coordinated, leaner with better body composition.

This advanced method allows for maximal improvement and growth of muscular size and strength and function, with maximal efficiency and allows one to stay mentally fresh and look forward to the next workout, constantly improving.

 

 

So diet and Cool Fat Burner tends to be the same repeated 4 day cycle.  Adaptive days allow me to do either a regular carb refeed, or a slow carb type meal.  The big variation comes through changing and alternating exercise.

Remember, this is the Clean Bulk.  It’s about building muscle.  That means all lifting – “heavy” and “light” – will be either in the Power/Strength or the Hypertrophy end of the strength/endurance spectrum.  Every ~ 2 months I’ll go on a 2-3 week cycle, usually super high reps or metabolic work.  This is to totally change things up, pre-hab the joints, de-train, build special strength, shore up weak points, and break through plateaus.  See the special exercises section of the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter to see some of the variations I may cycle into.

Meals are in blue, exercise is light grey.  Red is the daily caloric intake.

 

Now with Cool Fat Burner use added:

 

So now one can begin to see the inverse wave pattern, between calories & exercise (anabolic) vs deficits & CFB use (fat burning), over the 4-day cycle.

NOTE:  Regarding carb refeeds vs slow carb days, which is to say anabolic vs adaptive, days 2 & 3 PWO meal can really go either way, meaning a carb refeed surplus (“Anabolic”) or a slow carb closer to maintenance (“Adaptive”).  This is because Day 3 Pulls (back), especially on Heavy days, will be much more demanding and work much more muscle, then Day 2 Pushes (chest), even on a heavy chest day.  Now consider Pulls days where one hits the posterior chain as well, doing something like deadlifts… and one sees that workout deserves a surplus far more than Day 2 Pushes (which only hits chest and triceps).

So really, one can do a carb refeed, with or without slow carbs, in any of the PWO meals of Days 1,2, & 3.  Days that work the biggest muscle groups, and / or do the most volume (total work) deserve the biggest caloric surplus and PWO carb refeed.  That will usually be Day 1 (legs) or Day 3 (back, posterior chain).

 

Here we overlay the Calorie/Lifting vs CFB/Fat Burning wave over top the bar chart:

 

 

 

Here are example days on the 4 day cycle, Cycle 1:

 

Sample DAY 1 ANABOLIC
Pushes Legs – Heavy

 

Goals:

• Build muscle
• Reps 1-5 per set, at least 30 reps total
• Carb refeed to refill muscle glycogen
• Boost leptin and thyroid
• Experience a physically full stomach (vagus nerve stimulation)
• Rebuild tissue
• CFB use only if I go overboard with the carb refeed

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

Keto or low-carb breakfast

 

Workout — ~ 4 hrs later…

(First cycle, this is 1-5 rep “power/strength,”
the second cycle, this is 7-15 rep “strength/hypertrophy”)

Legs Pushes:

Front squats,
back squats,
leg press machine,
sissy squats,
box jumps,
lunges,
Any variations shown in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter.

 

Post-Workout carb refeed

I often go to a local all-you-can-eat buffet.  Or drink down a protein shake, then eat donuts or cakes or cookies or whatever.  Otherwise I’ll do one of the “clean” refeed meals listed above.

Optional:  Fiber shake beforehand

 

Cool Fat Burner — optional

1-2 hrs after PWO refeed, do not go above Moderate intensity

 

Evening / night meal

Protein, slow or no carb, low or no fats

 

 

 

 

Sample DAY 2 ANABOLIC
(Pushes Upper Body – Heavy)

 

Goals:

• Build muscle
• Reps 1-5 per set, at least 30 reps total
• Carb refeed or Slow Carb
• Boost leptin and thyroid
• Experience a physically full stomach (vagus nerve stimulation)
• Rebuild tissue
• CFB use only if I go overboard with the carb refeed

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

Keto or low-carb breakfast

 

Workout — ~ 4 hrs later…

(First cycle, this is 1-5 rep “power/strength,”
the second cycle, this is 7-15 rep “strength/hypertrophy”)

Upper Body Pushes:

Flat or Incline barbell or dumbell bench
Chest machines
Tricep exercises
Any variations shown in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter.

 

Post-Workout carb refeed

I often go to a local all-you-can-eat buffet.  Or drink down a protein shake, then eat donuts or cakes or cookies or whatever.  Otherwise I’ll do one of the “clean” refeed meals listed above.

Optional:  Fiber shake beforehand

 

Cool Fat Burner — optional

1-2 hrs after PWO refeed, do not go above Moderate intensity

 

Evening / night meal

Protein, slow or no carb, low or no fats

 

 

 

Sample DAY 3 ADAPTIVE
Pulls Upper Body – Light

 

Goals:

• Build muscle
• Reps 7-15 per set, at least 40-60 reps total
• Carb refeed or Slow Carb
• Experience a physically full stomach (vagus nerve stimulation)
• Rebuild tissue
• CFB use Moderate to High to start depleting glycogen

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

Keto or low-carb breakfast

 

Workout — ~ 4 hrs later…

(First cycle, this is 7-15 rep “strength/hypertrophy,”
the second cycle, this is 1-5 rep “power/strength”)

Upper Body Pulls:

Rows,
Lat pulldowns,
bent over rows,
pullups,
back machines,

And when including lower-body pulls:
deadlifts,
glute brides,
glute ham raises,
leg curls,
stiff-legged deadlifts,
kettlebell work,
Any variations shown in the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter.

 

Post-Workout carb refeed

Slow-carb meal.  NOTE:  one can switch the high-carb PWO meal from upper-body pushes (yesterday’s PWO meal) to this PWO meal instead.  Switch the two.  After all, on days when you do for example, heavy deadlifts… you’ve worked a lot more muscles than you have the day before when you do only upper body pushes.  In other words, deadlifts earn a much bigger meal than bench presses.  In that situation, it would be:  big PWO meal Day 1 (Legs), Slow-Carb PWO meal Day 2 (chest), big PWO meal Day 3 (deadlifts or full body pulls).

Optional:  Fiber shake beforehand

 

Cool Fat Burner — optional

1-2 hrs after PWO refeed, Moderate intensity

 

Evening / night meal

Protein, slow or no carb, low or no fats

 

 

 

Sample DAY 4 METABOLIC
(no exercise, focus on fat burning)

 

Goals:

• Create a huge caloric deficit
• Burn massive amounts of fat
• Deplete glycogen
• Lots of dietary protein, at least 1gm/ lb bodyweight, no carbs
  • PSMF
  • Keto for hard gainers
• Induce longevity mechanisms
• High intensity CFB session
• Optional – LISS (walking)

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

ECA stack.  Optional fasting.  Keto or PSMF.

This is usually just a protein shake with coffee, or the ECA stack.

 

Cool Fat Burner session

I do no less than 1.5 hour sessions.  Will induce and maintain shivering through most of the session.  Then lounge in the same, cool room for any number of hours after.

 

Lunch

Fiber shake.  PSMF snack (see ‘Hacks & Tricks’ chapter).  Protein shake.  Possible greens powder.

 

Snack

Xylitol gum

• Can give a burst of sweet taste to help fight cravings
• chewing can help with nervous energy from ECA stack
• Xylitol can help protect teeth

Exercise (optional)

Walking, or similar low intensity, passive calorie burning.

 

Dinner

PSMF snack or PSMF meal or keto meal.

 

 

That concludes a single 4 day cycle.  Now it repeats with everything roughly the same, except switch “Heavy” and “Light” on the exercises.  This may also mean changing the exercises themselves.  (especially since certain exercises lend themselves to being exclusively heavy or light)

 

CYCLING EXERCISES

 

Switching exercises

After around 3-4 weeks, switch exercise selection across the board.  Always maintain the principles of intuitive training, or “auto-regulation,” and play it by ear when need be.  Still hitting the same muscle groups — Lower Body Pushes (legs), Upper Body Pushes (chest and triceps and abs), Upper Body Pulls (back and biceps, as well as hamstring and glute work) — but do different exercises, or variations on the previous exercises, for each muscle group.  Still twice a week, still heavy one day, light the other, still appropriate carb-refeed PWO meals, still moderate CFB use on most days, except cutting days, which call for high intensity CFB use.

 

Exotic exercise cycle

If one is starting to plateau, feel burnout, or it’s been at least 8 weeks (two 4 week blocks), switch out all exercises and go completely to speed work, super high rep work, super slow reps, isometric holds, partial reps, tempo reps, band work, or some other exotic method from the “Hacks & Tricks” chapter.  This is a time to completely rehab the body, rejuvenate, and break through the plateau.  Diet during this time typically stays according to the general plan here, or one may just do a generic maintenance diet (ie, eat “whatever I feel like”).  This mini-cycle goes for 1-3 weeks, then go back to the main routine outlined here.

 

Here is a 10 week block, using chest as an example:

— 4 week cycle, heavy flat barbell benchpress (Day 2) & light dumbell incline press (next Day 2)

…then after those 4 weeks/cycles, swap the weights, angles, and bar to…

— 4 week cycle, light flat dumbell benchpress & heavy barbell incline press

…then swap out completely to super high rep work (or speed work, or super slow reps, isometric holds, or some other exotic method)…

— 2 weeks, pushups (both angles; feet on floor and feet elevated in each workout)

Remember, “heavy” is usually less than 6 reps /set, “light” is usually 7-15 reps /set.  The “super high rep work” pushups should go 20 or more reps per set, hitting over 100 reps per workout.

After 2 weeks of the super high rep work (or whatever exotic method one chose to do), one can resume the heavy/light, flat/incline, barbell/dumbell bench work.  Or transition into 4 weeks/cycles of something from the ‘Tricks & Hacks’ chapter, such as band work, partial reps, deficit lifts, negatives, and so on.

 

So in the above example, one hit the chest twice a week (technically, twice in 8 days).  Both heavy and light.  From two different angles.  Using two different modalities (barbell vs dumbell).  For roughly 3-4 weeks.  Then one switched the weightages, reps, methods, etc., for another 3-4 weeks.  Then the example switched something radically different (super high rep pushups) which still hit the same muscles, at the same angles, but at a totally different intensity and volume, for around 2 weeks.  Then one can start over again and repeat the meta-cycle, or start with new, exotic methods, but being sure to hit various angles of movement and ranges on the strength/endurance spectrum.

 

 

The Metabolic variant

The Metabolic variant is all about burning fat without losing muscle, or even slowly gaining muscle.  It is a 5 day repeating cycle.  Every day except Day 1 Anabolic is about burning fat.  This will incorporate pretty much every method and hack and span the entire strength/endurance spectrum on the Metabolic plan.

 

The Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan is very demanding.  I will not do it more than 2-3 weeks in a row, after which I switch back to some version of the Clean Bulk for at least 2 weeks.  If a person can easily do it more than 2 weeks without getting burnout or losing muscle and strength or experiencing serious food cravings, then they’re either high-level athletes, or they’re possibly starting with too little muscle in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Overview

Day 1 Anabolic

• Legs Pushes, heavy (hypertrophy)
• Carb refeed
• Minimal CFB

 

Day 2 Metabolic

• Pushes (chest, triceps, abs, occasional shoulders), metabolic
• PSMF & Slow carb
• Moderate to High CFB intensity

 

Day 3 Metabolic

• Pulls (back, biceps, posterior chain), metabolic
• PSMF & Keto
• Moderate to High CFB intensity

 

Day 4 Adaptive

• HIIT or LISS (example, rowing, wind sprints, or jogging)
• PSMF (or Keto if workout is suffering and you need more energy)
• High CFB intensity

 

Day 5 Passive fat burning; Rest

• Walking (ideally with a weight vest)
• any chores that need done
• standing desk
• PSMF
• High CFB intensity

 

So there is only one heavy lifting day, Day 1 Anabolic for the legs, with the only carb refeed.  Training is done in the 8-15 rep hypertrophy range, so it’s not even the heaviest one can lift, not at the pure “power/strength” end of the spectrum, but rather at hypertrophy, which is less intense.

All other days are fat burning metabolic days, and the exercise and Cool Fat Burner use reflect that.

Both the upper body “Pushes” and “Pulls” days will be some sort of metabolic work.  At the very least, they’ll be fast paced circuit, station, or interval training.  They can also go into all out HIIT sessions.  So the upper body will be worked through metabolic training, not traditional resistance training as they are in the Clean Bulk variant.

 

Here are example days:

 

Sample DAY 1 ANABOLIC
(Pushes Legs – Heavy)

Goals:

• Build muscle
• Reps 8-15 per set, at least 40 reps total
• exercise muscle group:  legs
• Carb refeed to refill muscle glycogen
• Boost leptin and thyroid
• Experience a physically full stomach (vagus nerve stimulation)
• Strengthen the gut biome
• Rebuild tissue
• Minimal CFB use

 

This one plays exactly like Day 1 Anabolic of the ‘Clean Bulk’ variant on the 2^nd cycle, thus the exercise range on the strength/endurance spectrum is at hypertrophy.
So lighter weights and more reps per set.  Should be around 8-15 reps per set, for at least 40-50 reps for each your quads and calves.

 

 

Sample DAY 2 METABOLIC
(Pushes Upper body)

Goals:

• Maintain muscle through anaerobic work, burn a lot of calories
• Circuit, station, interval training, or HIIT
• exercise muscle group: chest, triceps, abs
• PMSF & Slow carb, very high protein
• Strengthen the gut biome
• Some NEAT (standing desk)
• Moderate to High CFB intensity

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

ECA stack.  Protein shake or PSMF meal.

 

Afternoon / evening – workout; Pushes, metabolic

Circuit, station, or interval training or HIIT.  Must focus on chest, triceps, shoulders, abs.

Example:

• High rep dumbbells bench press, followed immediately by
• Kettlebell push-press for reps or time, followed immediately by
• Pushups for reps or time, followed immediately by
• Ab work (active rest)
• REPEAT for time (at least 20 min, ideally longer)

 

Simply put, take exercises that work the target muscle groups — chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs — and do them as some sort of station, circuit, or interval superset.  These can be for either reps or for time.  The key here is not only working the muscles, but one should also be breathing hard and have a high heart-rate.

 

PWO meal

Fiber shake.  Slow carb meal.

 

Cool Fat Burner session

1-2 hours after the slow carb meal.  Moderate to High intensity, and I go for no less than 1.5 hrs.  Lounge around in the same, cold room for a number of hours after removing the vests.

 

NEAT

Stand at my desk during the CFB session to add passive calorie burning.

 

Dinner

PSMF meal.

 

 

Sample DAY 3 METABOLIC
(Pulls Upper body, or entire posterior chain)

Goals:

• Maintain muscle through anaerobic work, burn a lot of calories
• Circuit, station, interval training, or HIIT
• exercise muscle group: back, biceps, possibly glutes and hamstrings (posterior chain)
• PMSF if possible, keto if need more energy. Very high protein
• Longevity mechanisms
• Some NEAT (standing desk)
• Moderate to High CFB intensity

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

ECA stack.  Protein shake or PSMF meal.

 

Afternoon / evening – workout; Pulls, metabolic

Circuit, station, or interval training or HIIT.  Must focus on back, biceps, and posterior chain.

Example:

• Pullups, followed immediately by
• Bent over rows, followed immediately by
• Inverted rows, followed immediately by
• Curls (active rest)

 

Some of the best routines for this day are the German Complex training routine, the Viking Warrior routine, (see “Hacks & Tricks” chapter) or just a bunch of sets of good old kettlebells swings and snatches, done with shorter rest periods so the routine is anaerobic (breathing hard, heart rate up the entire time, etc).  All such workouts should probably be a minimum of 20 minutes.  Some workouts like the Viking Warrior, if done to completion, will be 40 minutes.

 

PWO meal

Fiber shake.  PSMF or keto if not enough energy.

 

Cool Fat Burner session

1-2 hours after the PSMF or keto meal.  Moderate to High intensity, and I go for no less than 1.5 hrs.  Lounge around in the same, cold room for a number of hours after removing the vests.

 

NEAT

Stand at my desk during the CFB session to add passive calorie burning.

 

Dinner

PSMF or keto meal

 

 

Sample DAY 4 ADAPTIVE
(HIIT, MetCons, anaerobic work or LISS)

Goals:

• burn a lot of calories
• Wind sprints ideally, jogging if not able to sprint.  Possible rowing if back not sore from previous day’s work
• induce hormonal response conductive to fat burning
• longevity mechanisms
• PSMF if possible, keto if need more energy. Very high protein
• Lots of NEAT (standing desk)
• High CFB intensity

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

ECA stack.  Protein shake or PSMF meal.

 

Afternoon / evening – workout; HIIT or LISS

Wind sprints if possible.  Jogging if not.  Rows as another alternative.  (since we hit Pulls the day before, rows may be out of the question)

 

PWO meal

Fiber shake.  PSMF If possible or keto if not enough energy.

 

Cool Fat Burner session

1-2 hours after the PSMF or keto meal.  Moderate to High intensity, and I go for no less than 1.5 hrs.  Lounge around in the same, cold room for a number of hours after removing the vests.

 

NEAT

Stand at my desk throughout the day to add passive calorie burning.

 

Dinner

PSMF meal

 

 

Sample DAY 5 PASSIVE FAT BURNING

Goals:

• burn a lot of calories
• Walking (ideally with weight vest)
• induce hormonal response conductive to fat burning
• longevity mechanisms
• PSMF or fasting, but still very high protein
• Lots of NEAT (standing desk)
• High CFB intensity

 

Morning / late morning breakfast…

ECA stack.  Protein shake or PSMF meal or fasting if longevity is the main goal.

 

Afternoon / evening – workout; LISS / walking

Just walking.  May wear a weight vest.

 

PWO meal

Fiber shake.  PSMF If possible or keto if not enough energy.

 

Cool Fat Burner session

1-2 hours after the PSMF or keto meal.  Moderate to High intensity, and I go for no less than 1.5 hrs.  Lounge around in the same, cold room for a number of hours after removing the vests.

 

NEAT

Stand at my desk throughout the day to add passive calorie burning.

 

Dinner

PSMF meal

 

This cycle simply repeats.  No need to change out reps or intensities per muscle group.  Only exercise selection need changed to suit needs.

Two to three weeks is enough, before cycling back to a more moderate version like the Clean Bulk variant for at least two weeks.

 

 

TROUBLESHOOTING

Plateaus and burnout.

Training suffers, no improvements.  Possible solutions:

• need to switch variants, cycles, exercises, rep ranges, etc
• not eating enough protein
• not eating enough carbs
• rest, sleep, supplementation, or some other ‘outside’ factor

 

Not losing weight:

• Eating more than you think you are
• CFB sessions and workouts are not as intense, long, or frequent as you think
• You are burning fat, but also gaining muscle, thus weight doesn’t change (but performance, appearance, and health will)
• Metabolic slowdown due to cutting too much, too fast, or for too long — ease back into the Clean Bulk variant for a month, being sure to eat enough calories and carbs

The absolute best, fastest ways humanly possible to burn fat and build muscle.

Advanced Concepts behind the Body Recomp plan —

–  Diet
–  Exercise
–  Cold Thermogenesis
–  Supplementation
–  NEAT & passive calorie burning

 

General Gameplan –

– Abs are made in the kitchen and the freezer.  Diet and Cool Fat Burner use are the prime movers of fat loss.
– Exercise is primarily used to maintain & grow muscle.  Except in the Metabolic variant, where it also used to burn fat.
– Cycling allows one to hit the benefits of all variables, while limiting any negative factors

 

Outline

 

Diet

Protein
— TEF
— Satiety
— MPS, Refractory window, Anabolic window, & timing
— Muscle loss and 1gm /lb
— Multiple vs fewer meals
— Cancer & aging?

Fats
— Satiety
— Low insulin
— Fat burning
— Longevity
— Metabolic flexibility

Carbs
— Satiety; leptin, thyroid, insulin
— Anabolic; insulin
— Glycogen super-compensation
— Fiber, legumes, and gut health
— Counterpoint:  inflammation, cravings, energy crash, etc.

Inflammation,  heart health, and longevity

Cycling & influences
— Metabolic diet 90’s
— Slow carb
— Fasting methods
— Rapid Fat loss & UD 2.0
— Every other day
— Carb backloading & Biorhythm diets

 

Exercise

— Muscle retention during caloric deficits
— Muscle as a driver of RMR and workload capacity
— Psychological & physiological benefits of muscularity
— Strength / Endurance spectrum and GPP

—  Aspects of each; strength & hypertrophy to metabolic thru cardio
—  Fast twitch, size and power
—  Slow twitch and sarcoplasmic
—  What is “cardio?”
—  Cardio for sarcoplasmic water hypertrophy?
—  Metabolic training
—  LISS

— Factors:

—  mechanical load, TUT, metabolic stress as well as hormonal factors
—  30-60 reps, 2X per week, & VO2 max for cardio

— MPS after exercise
— Intuitive periodization (“auto self-regulation”), cycling, conjugate methods, assistance work, specificity and extrapolation, burnout Hacks

 

Cold thermogenesis

— Intensity levels

—  Brown fat

—  Mild calorie burn
—  Glucose uptake
—  Fat burning & adaptation
—  Mitochondrial biogenesis

—  Efficiency
—  Longevity

—  Shivering

—  Massive calorie burning
—  Irisin & Adiponectin
—  Browning of white fat
—  Glycogen depletion & ketosis

—  Cold packs = “bieging” of subcut fat

— Strategies

— Mixing of intensity levels
— Fasted sessions for stubborn fat
— Glycogen depletion
— PWO for continued glucose uptake & supercomensation

 

— Supplementation & Hacks

— Creatine
— Whey and Casein
— Omega 3
— Vitamin D
— Pre-workout

— Caffeine
— Beta-Alanine, Citruline, Agmatine

— ECA stack
— Counter-points:  mega-vitamins, any others not listed
— Fiber shake
— Aspirin
— Melatonin

 

— NEAT & passive calorie burning

 — Standing desk, chores, light walking

Diet

Protein

Protein is all-important for body composition.  Protein amounts and timing will dictate all meals.

Protein is the most satiating of all macronutrients.  When a study shows some advantage to carbs vs fats, it’s actually always because of the amount of protein the subjects ate.  Protein is absolutely essential to help keep you filled up.  Protein ingestion increases a hormone called “Cholecystokinin” (CCK) that acts as an appetite suppressant.

Protein also has a very high “thermic effect,” thus it takes a lot of calories just to digest and process dietary protein.  Around 25-30% of a thermic effect.  So it takes your body roughly 25-30 calories just to digest 100 calories worth of ingested protein.

Muscle Protein Synthesis.  When we eat enough protein, it induces “muscle protein synthesis” (MPS).  This means it helps build muscle and repair tissue just from eating it.

Remember:  all of our cells are constantly growing, repairing, dying, reproducing.  That includes muscle cells.  All cells and tissues are in a constant state of building up and breaking down.  If the sum “building up” is greater than the sum “breaking down,” you gain more of that tissue.  If there is more breaking down, you lose some of that tissue.  This applies to all tissues making up the body.

When we try and lose fat, which means a caloric deficit, this makes it easier to break down and lose muscle (up to nearly 50% of weight loss can actually be muscle loss).  We want to keep as much muscle as possible when we’re in a caloric deficit.  That means we want to induce MPS as often as possible, for as long as possible.  Dietary protein consumption and resistance training are the two best ways to induce MPS and preserve muscle while dieting.

Several questions:

— What is the ideal amount of protein we need to eat to induce MPS?
— And does the type of protein matter?
— What about other foods; do they effect MPS?

Studies have shown that a 20 gram dose of whey protein induces a significant MPS response after exercise.  A 40 gm dose increased MPS more, upwards of 20%.  However in the real world, these numbers may need to be higher.  This is especially true of those who workout more (than in the study).  Also those who are experienced in exercise and have been doing it for years tend to require more stimulus to keep seeing results.  This may mean they also need more protein.  Also as one gets older, they probably need more protein to still activate the same amount of MPS.

So the absolutely minimum amount of protein one should have at any meal is 20 grams.  Those who work out a lot, are already experienced, and/or older should probably eat more.  I never eat less than 30-40 gm protein in any given meal.  If you’re unsure of how much protein you have on your plate, remember this image guide:

 

 

I never eat less than 40 gm protein in any given meal, and often go up to 50-60 gm.  This way I’m guaranteed to get a maximal MPS spike.

But the speed of protein absorption is probably tied to MPS.  Look at this chart — Protein absorption rate (grams per hour) from various food sources.  Slowest to fastest.

Protein Absorption Rate (g/hour) Raw Egg Protein * 1.4 Cooked Egg Protein * 2.9 Pea Protein 3.5 Milk Protein 3.5 Soy Protein Isolate 3.9 Casein Isolate 6.1 Whey Isolate 8-10 Tenderloin Pork Steak * 10.0

This was borrowed from Lyle McDonald.  (Note the “Tenderloin Steak” entry is almost certainly flawed and a mistake from the original experiment data.  If anything, it would have a slow digestion rate like eggs at the top.)

Sometimes one may want to use fast-digesting proteins, like whey protein.  Other times, one would want to mix protein types in a meal, for slower digestion and a lower, longer MPS spike.  Because the magnitude of MPS may be tied to the speed of protein digestion and absorption, one can control the speed, magnitude , and duration of the MPS spike.  For example, whey protein is the fastest digesting and absorbing protein and (if taken with only water and nothing else) can create the largest spike in MPS.  But since whey protein powder is such a fast digesting protein, it can actually allow for muscle catabolism later on!  Yes, you’ll actually have a rebound effect if you eat only whey, then wait too long before eating protein again; you’ll first gain muscle, but then lose some!  This of course can be countered by eating another bolus of protein, either whey or something slower acting, again at the minimum 30 grams, at the appropriate time (see ‘Refractory Window’ below).

 

 

Compare whey to casein:

 

The way to avoid muscle breakdown is to mix protein types (faster whey with slower other types), or to be sure to do another meal of protein before breakdown can begin.  In terms of protein shakes, mix whey and casein (and even egg) protein powders.  This makes the MPS slower, longer, and eliminates the rebound catabolic loss of muscle hours later. Keep in mind that whole food sources will typically have a mix of amino acids and proteins, so you will never encounter this problem of “too fast” digesting proteins like you can with whey protein shakes.

 

Question:  So if a minimal protein dose (for me, no less than 40 gm) induces maximal muscle protein synthesis, and this is of paramount importance while dieting… then why not just eat 40gm protein shakes every hour to have constant, maximized, unending protein synthesis in the muscles?

 

The “refractory window.”

When you eat protein, that protein is broken down via digestion into amino acids, and carried through the bloodstream to the various tissues of your body.  Those amino acids in your blood, particularly the amino acid leucine, is what triggers muscle protein synthesis.

But here’s the catch – once you raise blood amino acid levels enough and trigger MPS… you can’t trigger it again until those amino acid levels drop back down again below a certain amount.  So you can’t constantly keep eating more and more protein, hoping to build more and more muscle, constantly and unending.  It’s a one-shot deal, then you have to wait.  Wait for the amino acid levels in your blood to drop again, and only then can you again trigger MPS with another round of protein ingestion.

How long do you have to wait to eat protein again, and induce another MPS spike?

Well it depend in part on how much protein was in your last meal.  The rule of thumb is that you can digest and use around 10 gram of protein per hour.  So if you eat around 40 grams of protein… your next round of protein should be around 4 hours later.  Conveniently this coincides with the intervals that most people already use to time their meals.  Again, this is assuming 40-50 grams of protein per meal.  If you only eat 20 grams of protein, you would have to eat much sooner (2-3 hours) and more frequently throughout the day to have constant MPS, or risk having some catabolizing occurring and losing some muscle between windows, until you finally eat again.

Note:  this is also assuming that the refractory window ‘resets’ when you get back down to 0 amino acids.  This is oversimplified and certainly not true.  In other words, all because you eat 40 gm of protein does not mean that you will be back to “0 amino acids” 4 hours later, nor does is mean that the refractory window only then resets.  Nevertheless we’ll keep that as a loose rule of thumb for now.

So for every 10 grams of protein you eat, you’ll want to wait roughly 1 hr before eating another meal containing protein.  Since our target protein amount per meal is 30-50 grams, we would usually wait around 3-5 hrs before eating again.

Combining dietary protein and exercise — See the graph below:  Protein ingestion after exercise causes the biggest boost in MPS.  This makes sense; you’re essentially combining the MPS effects of exercise and the MPS effects of ingested protein together.

 

 

 

Total Amount of Daily Protein…

Before we continue, let’s address the issue of total amount of daily protein.  This is another one of those concepts that is highly debatable.  Also note that this amount may vary depending on who you are and what you’re doing that day.  Are you young or old, new to training or have years of experience, will your diet be anabolic or metabolic, which is to say, are you going to build muscle, or burn fat?  Because your protein requirements may vary depending on all those factors.

I prefer to get .7 to 1 gram of protein per pound bodyweight, though there may be benefits to going even higher.  So if I weigh 200lbs, I need to get between 140 and 200 grams of protein every day, depending on what type of day it is – anabolic muscle building, or metabolic fat burning.

Days where I’m anabolic, lifting heavy, and wanting to build muscle, I can get less protein, because I’m eating a lot of carbs and will be in a caloric surplus.  Remember – you need less protein when you’re in a surplus, as your body will not break down muscle just to get protein to feed itself.  But if you’re in a caloric deficit, as in the metabolic days, I need to eat the full 1gram per pound (200 grams in my case) to keep my body from catabolizing any protein.  This may be even more important for athletes.

So on anabolic days – where I have a caloric surplus for muscle building, I need less protein.  .7 grams per pound is enough.
On metabolic days – where I have a caloric deficit for fat loss, I need more protein.  1 gram per pound is good.

 

Examples of daily protein per bodyweight:

anabolic (surplus)                            metabolic (deficit)
building muscle                                 burning fat
(.7 gm /lb bodyweight)                  (1 gm /lb bodyweight)

150lb person                      105 gm                                                  150 gm

180lb person                      126 gm                                                  180 gm

200lb person                      140 gm                                                  200 gm

 

 

How many meals should I eat?

This is another area of debate.  A few studies showed a huge MPS spike with one large meal (with a lot of protein – 80 grams).  But that study was done in geriatric subjects.  Yet recent studies have shown greater overall net MPS in numerous, smaller meals.

This probably falls under the category of “whichever works best for you,” assuming you get the minimal amount per meal.  Here’s the thing:  if you’re in a deficit for the day, and you’re only eating one meal… how are you going to get 1 gram per pound bodyweight of protein into that one meal?  Are you going to eat a 150 grams of protein in one sitting?  (assuming you weigh 150lbs)

Because of this, I prefer to do 3-4 meals a day, allowing enough time in between to reset the MPS refractory window.

 

How does this tie into exercise?  When, how much, what type?

Will go into more detail in that chapter down below.  Speaking generally, I will say here that I prefer to workout towards the end of one of the MPS windows, just before it’s about to reset, but not too late that I will catabolize any muscle.  There are several reasons I do this:

1. I like to workout with little to no food in my stomach
2. I want to workout while still having some amino acids in my blood stream and MPS still (barely) going on, so I only grow muscle, and don’t catabolize any of it
3. This sets it up perfectly to have a rewarding meal after the workout, not only in time to once again trigger the biggest MPS (protein + resistance training), but also restore glycogen (depleted from the workout) with carbs, which will also allow me to take advantage of the hormonal benefits of carbs with no negative aspects

 

 

So my ideal setup for protein amounts and timing would be like this:

• Eat 40-50 gm protein per meal.
• Workout around 3-4 hrs after the last meal.
• Eat again post-workout, which will be ~ 4 hrs after the first meal to again trigger MPS.
• That PWO meal can have plenty of carbs, and be a “cheat meal” if need be.

 

 

How does the Cool Fat Burner fit into this equation?

Addressed below in the related chapter.

 

Isn’t protein hard on the kidneys?

Answer:  No.  And every study has shown this time and again.  If you have healthy kidneys, no amount of ingested protein will hurt them.  However if you have pre-existing kidney issues, that could be another situation and you should check with your doctor in regards to how much protein is safe to eat.

 

 

What about the possible link between protein with cancer and aging?

The only studies regarding protein and cancer are “epidemiological” studies, which are near worthless.  They show only correlations between groups, variables, etc.  They are usually the weakest types of findings, and can be manipulated to show anything.  For example, does eating cheese cause you to die by getting tangled in your bed sheets?

 

 

As you can see on that spoof chart, you can correlate darn near anything together, even if they have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.  Yet saying they’re “correlated” makes it sound like they’re related or even causal to each other, even when they’re totally unrelated.

This is pretty much what all of the “protein causes cancer” ‘evidence’ is.

The idea that protein can cause or accelerate cancer, as well as accelerate aging, is due to it’s effect on mTOR a processes within the body as well as the hormone “IGF-1”  (“insulin like growth factor 1”), processes which are tied to the growth of all tissues.  See “Longevity” chapter for more details.

 

Fats

For many people fats are highly satiating.  Fats also cause a minimal blood sugar increase, and thus induce a minimal insulin response.  Healthy dietary fats can allow for improved health markers, improved blood lipids, and healthy cholesterol levels.  Fat dominant diets may also be helpful for longevity.

But some types of fats can be inflammatory.  And all fat has over twice as many calories per unit as either protein or carbs.

So fats can help fill a person up, and have a minimal hormonal response on the body, and are an integral part to a healthy dietary approach.

Note:  Whatever food source dominates ingestion, that tends to be what your body burns during that time.  If you’re eating fats, your body burns more fats.  Eating carbs (which will be converted to glucose) your body will burn more glucose.  But being in “fat burning mode” still doesn’t dictate overall fat loss.  Being in an overall deficit does.  If you live off of high-fat paleo desserts, you’ll eat mostly fats, you’ll probably be in a surplus, and you’ll gain fat.

Due to the low hormonal (insulin) response of ingested fats, one does not have the rise and then ‘crash’ of blood sugar they may experience from eating simple carbs.  Thus eating fats allows for stable energy levels.

Circadian influences:  It’s been shown that many of our systems work on the biological clock known as the circadian rhythm.  Our insulin sensitivity also works on this clock.  Insulin sensitivity is how responsive your body is to the effects of insulin.  If you’re tissues are highly insulin sensitive, that means they can very easily suck up nutrients, including fat.  If you’re not burning or using those nutrients, they’ll be stored (dietary fat stored in subcutaneous fat).  In non-obese subjects, insulin sensitivity is high in the morning, and slowly decreases throughout the day.  (the Body Recomp plan is an advanced system, and not designed for the obese, who should instead follow the Startup Guide and work on bringing everything else up to speed first)

And so because dietary fats allow for stable energy levels, and because of higher insulin sensitivity in the morning hours, dietary fats will tend to be limited to and dominate the morning hours of the day, and be reduced in the evening and night.  Carbs will have an inverse relationship; no carbs in the morning when insulin sensitivity is high, and save them for post workout and into the evening hours.  Protein will always be high, except possibly on Anabolic days, where one has carb refeeds and should be in a caloric surplus.  You don’t need as much protein when in a surplus.

 

 

Morning                                               Noon                                     Evening / Night

Protein                 Mod to High                                       Mod to High                          Mod to High

Fats                        Mod to High                                       Low                                        Low

Carbs                     None                                                    Low                                        Mod to High

 

 

 

 

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are essential to optimal body composition and performance.  There has been a lot of carb-blaming, bashing, and “carbophobia” over the last while.  This fear is totally misplaced.  Carbohydrates can boost the metabolism, boost hormones that lower appetite and increase body temps, carbs fuel tougher workouts, carbs can feed your gut flora that lead to all manner of health benefits.

Yes, carbs can also cause cravings for more carbs, and they can also cause a blood sugar and insulin spike… and then a subsequent crash, making you feel groggy and unfocused.  And like fats, not all carbs are created equal.

 

The “Glycemic Index.”  Is it important?

A lot of attention has been given to classifying carbs by how fast they digest and how much they effect blood glucose levels.  This spectrum is called the “glycemic index,” or GI.

In the GI, they compare how fast or slow it takes carbs to digest and how high they spike insulin, in comparison to ingestion of pure glucose.  So “high GI” carbs digest fast, and cause a high blood glucose and insulin spike.  “Low GI” carbs are slower to digest, and have a more gradual effect on BGL.

The primary difference on the GI spectrum then is how fast a particular carb digests.  Probably the main factor that effects digestion speed is how much or little fiber is in the carbs.  How much processing it has had, or how cooked is it?  Raw, uncooked sources tend to be much slower to digest than highly refined and/or cooked carbs.  (refining and cooking tends to remove or break down fibers and other elements that would slow digestion)

Also note that if you eat carbs with other foods, those other foods can completely slow down even fast-digesting carbs.  This is one of the reason I really don’t care about the glycemic index, and in my opinion, it is meaningless.

Mixing carbs with other foods, working out beforehand, having depleted glycogen stores, using the Cool Fat Burner to suck up glucose… there are many variables that completely nullify the importance of the GI scale.  So it is irrelevant to this plan.

 

Leptin and thyroid

Carbs can most quickly of all the macronutients increase leptin and thyroid hormones.  Leptin increases metabolism and reduces hunger and cravings.  Thyroid increases body temp, metabolism, and overall energy.  So by strategically eating carbs, you can reduce hunger and cravings, increase metabolism and calorie burning, and increase energy and body temperature.

 

Carbs are also Anabolic

Carbs raise blood glucose.  This induces an increase in insulin, which carries that glucose and nutrients into the cells of your body.  This allows those tissues to rebuild.  Thus due to the impact of leptin, thyroid, and insulin, when properly used, carbs can have a huge impact on your physicality and athletic performance.

 

Carbs and glycogen supercompensation

Glycogen is the ‘starchy’ fuel stored in muscles and used for high intensity workouts.  If you reduce dietary carbs, you lower glycogen.  If you do high intensity training, you burn up and reduce glycogen.   Moderate and high intensity cold thermogenesis can reduce glycogen.  Do all three together, and one can deplete glycogen in a matter of days.

Note:  both low carb dieting and CFB use can deplete glycogen system-wide in all major muscles, but exercise will only deplete whatever muscles are being worked

When one eats carbs again, those carbs are broken down into glucose and used to refill your muscle (and liver) glycogen stores.

Glycogen supercompensation has several potential benefits:

• Anabolic for the muscles; rebuilds and strengthens them
• Allows for controlled, max increase of leptin, thyroid, & insulin, and all the benefits they bring
  • Lower appetite and cravings
  • Increased calorie burning
  • Increased energy and body temps
• Psychological factors:
  • the muscles will feel pumped, thick, and full
  • free cheat meal

 

 

Fiber, legumes, & Gut Health

One of the biggest benefits of carbs is the various fibers and resistant starches they contain.  These fibers feed and maintain our gut flora.  The helpful and beneficial microorganisms in our digestive tract are responsible for a host of processes.  They create a majority of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.  They process many toxins from food sources, they positively effect cholesterol levels, and they are a major part of our immune system.

The gut flora is also linked to insulin sensitivity and our ability to efficiently use nutrients.

In animal models, if obesogenic gut bacteria are transplanted from obese to lean animals, the lean animals gain weight and lose their insulin sensitivity.  And when obese mice were fed bacteria coming from the lean mice, the obese mice were able to eat more calories and not gain weight.

Legumes – beans, lentils, and so on, are probably the best source of carb based fibers that feed our good gut flora.  Potatoes are another good source.  They contain “resistant starch.”

Cool Fat Burner user and expert on resistant starch Tim Steele authored a book called the Potato Hack Diet.  It’s worth checking out, and goes into detail about the gut biome and how the potato hack capitalizes on that system.

Resistant starch is a carbohydrate component that has similar qualities as fiber.  It isn’t digested in the stomach, but passes into the small and then large intestine, where it is broken down by our gut flora via fermentation.  This process is what gives it so many of its benefits; our ancestors ate up to 130 grams of fiber a day.  We often eat less than 10.  So many of our health problems are probably due to this difference.  The various fibers and fiber-like substances in food sources including carbs are essential to health and optimal performance.

 

Fermentable components that feed the Gut Biome

1. Fiber (often called “dietary” fiber) – indigestible elements of food, derived from plant sources
   1. Soluble fiber – readily dissolves in water, prebiotic and digested into gasses in the intestines. Slows digestion.  Helps control BGL and lower cholesterol levels.
      1. Examples: oatmeal, nuts, beans, apples, and blueberries
   2. Insoluble fiber – do not dissolve in water, and effectively work as bulking agents in the digestive tract. Can still be prebiotic, being broken down and fermented in the intestines.
      1. Examples: skins of fruit as well as whole-wheat bread and brown rice

NOTE: psyllium powder (Metamucil) is roughly 70% soluble, 30% insoluble fibers

2. Resistant starch – carbohydrate material that is not digested in the stomach, but travels to the intestine where it is fermented and used for fuel by our gut flora. Structurally different from fibers.
   1. Examples: raw potato starch, potatoes, legumes

 

The Body Recomp plan will include foods with various fibers and resistant starches in the meals, as well as the “Fiber Shake” before PWO re-feeds.  (see “Tricks & Hacks” chapter)

 

Counterpoint:  inflammation, blood sugar spikes, energy crash and grogginess, and cravings.

Carbohydrate foods can also have downsides.  Carbs can spike blood glucose levels, cause a crash later on, with a drop in energy and even grogginess.  Eating carbs can supposedly cause cravings for more carbs.  Chronically raised BGL can lead to inflammation and all sorts of diseases.  But all of these problems can be easily avoided.

The type of carbs, what else is eaten with it, the amount, the frequency, the timing.  All of these factors can completely eliminate any problems that carbs present.  A recent examination showed that those eating a diet including whole grains had lower incidence of disease and longer lifespans.

 

Surplus for muscle, deficit for fat loss

The body cannot make muscle without a caloric surplus.  (Except for beginners to weight training, who can easily experience “noob gains” without a surplus)  It needs extra calories to build the new tissue.  It cannot burn fat without being in a deficit.  It needs to be forced to burn stored fat to use as fuel.

How much of a surplus does one need to build muscle?   We won’t count calories.  But most sources guess around a 10% increase for the day.  For most people that would be 200-300 extra calories.  Thus our “Anabolic” days when we workout hard and need to build muscle, we will have to be in a slight surplus.

After protein amounts are met, the surplus will be achieved through carbs, largely via the PWO carb refeed.

 

Dietary influences on the Body Recomp plan

The Anabolic & Metabolic diet – mid to late 90’s

In the mid and late 90’s during and after college I was a semi-professional fighter, back then called “NHB” (no-holds barred) fighting or “ultimate fighting,” what is now called “mixed martial arts.”  During that time I would experiment with different dietary plans to see if they could enhance performance and body composition (Keep in mind fighting is a weight-class based sport, so you want to have the best attributes at the lowest weight.)

The “Anabolic diet” and “Metabolic diet” were created by Dr Mauro Di Pasquale, a physician and world-record holding powerlifter.  They were basically cyclical ketogenic diets.

Ketogenic diets are those where fat and not carbs, are the primary fuel source.  When you limit carbs below a certain amount, the body used fats in the form of ketones, as fuel.  Once that happens, one is said to be in ketosis.  (Despite what people think, the amount of fat you eat is irrelevant to whether or not you go into ketosis; it’s all about limiting carbs and depleting muscle and liver glycogen.  Someone could eat practically no fats, and still be in ketosis so long as they also ate no carbs.)

Cyclical ketogenic diets have an intentional, scheduled carb re-feed.  This refuels the muscles, raises anabolic hormones like insulin, leptin, and thyroid, and also provides a diet break.  Most CKDs have one meal or day of the week that allows carbs, as a re-feed.

Targeted ketogenic diets are where you choose and ‘target’ your re-feed for a particular goal or reason, usually around a workout.  So you can re-feed more or less whenever it fits your goals; it’s not rigidly scheduled like in a CKD.

Since it takes most people a number of days of restricting carbs before they enter ketosis, most CKD/TKD only allow one refeed per week.  (as we’ll see in the Body Recomp plan, strategically adding exercise and cold thermogenesis can allow one to enter ketosis in 1-2 days, thus allowing for more frequent carb re-feeds)

 

The way the Metabolic Diet was supposed to work was like this:  you would go keto throughout the week.  This would theoretically increase fat burning.  Then on the weekend, one or both days, you would carb refeed.  This would refill the muscles, increase anabolism, and build everything back up so you didn’t lose muscle.  So you burn fat during the week and rebuild muscle on the weekends.

Here’s the problem – I was training twice a day on most days of the week.  Going low-carb just didn’t cut it.  I was tired, worn out, and beat down.  So while it was a fun diet to experiment with, it just didn’t work for the demanding anaerobic nature of professional MMA training.

Intense versions of the Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan will function like a targeted ketogenic diet.

 

Cycling & cyclical diets

This first experience with CKD got me into the habit of doing things in a cyclical nature.  (And around this time I also began studying Westside Barbell philosophies, also cyclical in nature, addressed below under ‘Exercise’)  Doing things in a cyclical nature really worked for me.  Doing the same thing on and on and on gets boring and stale and monotonous, and both my mind and body tend to adapt and not improve.  But cycling offers constant change and improvement.  Cycling foods, exercise, and later cold thermogenesis would become crucial to have both constant variety and constant growth.

 

Slow Carb & the 4 Hour Body

When it was time to get back into shape around 2010, I came across “The 4 Hour Body.”  Basically the diet protocol was the Anabolic/Metabolic Diet, + legumes.  That’s it.  (In fact Tim Ferris mentions both in the book and on his blog – though not by name – about doing the Metabolic diet in around 2000.  He was around Philadelphia at the time.  Ironically I was a few hours away in Washington DC also on the Metabolic diet, competing in MMA.)

The “4 Hour Body” called this diet a “slow carb” diet, since legumes are slow-digesting.  I’d already commonly eaten beans in high school and college since beans were a cheap source of protein and fiber.  One problem with the 4 Hour Body, Ferris seems to imply that the diet works because the slow carbs don’t spike insulin.  Thus he’s adhering to the insulin model of fat gain.  In reality, the reason the slow carb diet works, is that it ‘tricks’ you into eating less calories.  That’s really the main reason any diet works.

Insulin theory of obesity – states that foods that increase insulin cause obesity, and foods that do not increase insulin allow for weight loss.  It states that carbohydrates increase insulin… and when insulin is raised, fat is stored (or at least not burned).  Conversely it states that dietary fats do not raise insulin… and if one eats primary fats (ie, a ketogenic diet) that they will inherently lose weight.

This is not necessarily true.

First of all, nearly all foods raise insulin to some degree.  What’s more, certain types of protein can raise insulin more than certain carbs.  In addition, if one is in a caloric deficit, they can live off sugar and junk food and carbs, and still lose weight.  Finally, go ahead and live off of high-fat “paleo desert” types meals.  You’ll be in ketosis… and you’ll also gain fat.  EIEO (or CICO) still dominates.  (Also there are studies showing absolutely no metabolic advantage to low-carb over low-fat, and sometimes even the opposite)
If a ketogenic diet helps one lose weight, it does so only because it ‘tricks’ one into eating less calories.  This is because ketosis is a physiological state similar to starvation, and it stifles appetite.  In some people.  There is a spectrum, and some do not find dietary fats filling, and do not experience appetite suppression from keto diets.  Those people will probably not find keto diets or low or slow-carb diets as effective.

I remember reading folks on the 4 Hour Body forums who were sticking to the diet and not losing weight.  The reason?  They were eating too much of the “allowed” foods.  Yes, it’s unlikely that you’ll gain weight eating just proteins, legumes, and cruciferous veggies… but it is possible, since EIEO still applies.

So the slow carb diet was essentially a keto diet – meaning it removed pretty much all starchy or sugary carb sources – but it allowed legumes as well as cruciferous vegetables.  Bean, lentils, and well as cauliflower, so on.  As mentioned above, legumes are some of the best sources to feed the gut flora.

Still, I found this diet boring as hell and didn’t stick with it very long.  Maybe a few months at most.

 

Fasting methods

Fasting became a big fad around this time as well, popularized by guys like Martin Berkhan’s “LeanGains” and Brad Pilon’s “Eat Stop Eat.”  Suddenly, just like so many diets before, people thought it was magic.  Like it broke the laws of CICO.  But it was more than that – people acted like if you fasted part of the day, you could pig out as much as possible during your feeding window, and still lose weight.  Of course this wasn’t true.

This was really popular on Facebook, people sharing pics of massive meals they were supposedly eating, huge vats of cereal and junk food and so on… and then showing ‘Before & After’ pics of them being ripped with abs.  Here’s the problem with that “evidence” – not one single bit of it was verified.  Even in “Before & After” pics, how do you even know how much fat and muscle they have?  Did they post DEXA scans?  If not, then even though they looked big and muscled (because they lost fat and have more definition) they could have also lost a lot of muscle.  Only DEXA scans would prove otherwise.  (Arguably athletic performance would as well, but that would also have to be measured and recorded.)

What’s more, it turns out a lot of people were simply going all day without eating, then eating one massive meal and sharing that pic and implying that was an ‘average’ meal they were eating throughout an extended feeding window.  Really, there was no controlled proof of any of it.  No control of what or when they ate or exercised.  Just pics of junk food and abs.  (remember, anyone can get ripped long enough to take a picture, then let themselves get fat again)

When the fervor went away and the dust settled it was more or less accepted that the only way fasting works is by making it easier for one to eat less calories than they burn, and that fasting has no metabolic advantage to any other dietary approach.  If you only eat during a five hour window… but eat so much food as to go over your daily calorie expenditure, you’ll still gain weight.  Another recently published study:  no difference between calorie restriction and every other day fasting.

Ultimately if fasting works it’s because:

• You eat large amounts of protein
• You fast for either a certain amount each day, or 1-2 days out of the week, during which time you’ll take in no calories and create an energy deficit
• Then when you do eat, you still have to make sure your total is below your TDEE (or weekly energy expenditure, in the case of Eat Stop Eat)

That’s it.  No magic.  You’re just taking in less calories.  If you overeat during your feeding windows, you’ll still gain weight, regardless of how long you fasted before you finally pig out.

There are still some possible benefits to fasting, especially in the fields of longevity.  It’s been shown that fasting can enhance cellular cleanup and autophagy.  Fasting also can allow for a mental clarity in some… though for others it can induce binge-like behaviors.  After all, if you know you won’t get to eat again for another 20 hours, you may be tempted to eat as much as you can, while you can!  Also fasting may cause some serious hormonal and metabolic problems for women.  Finally there is still a lot of debate as to whether or not you can build or even maintain muscle while fasting.  As of now, very few people seem to promote fasting as a primary diet if you’re concerned with building muscle.

The Body Recomp plan has optional fasting windows built in for those who prefer fasting.

Note: the original “How I Eat Junk Food and Still Have Abs” video was during a period where I did 19:5 daily fasts.  19 hours fasting, 5 hour feeding window.  I would then do CFB work later, to try and catch any caloric spillover.  And while I did lose fat, I also lost muscle.

 

Rapid Fat Loss & the Ultimate Diet 2.0

Lyle McDonald is highly touted in regards to diet, exercise, and body composition.  Most of his readers and followers tend to be the most serious types of people who demand results, including many professional fitness competitors.  Many current health and fitness blog writers, whether they know it or not, have built upon his work.

The Rapid Fat Loss system is basically a “Protein Sparing Modified Fast,” or PSMF, mixed with specific supplementation to maintain hormonal health.  A PSMF is essentially where you just eat protein, and almost nothing else.  You have a minimal amount of fats (often through omega-3 supplementation) to maintain hormone function.  Pretty much no carbs.  The diet is only to be followed for a few weeks before one should switch back to maintenance for a while before repeating the PSMF cycle.

The Ultimate Diet 2.0 is an advanced approach designed for men no more than 15% bodyfat and women 20% bodyfat, and is geared to get people into near competition-level leanness.  It cycles between days of very low carb dieting and excruciating glycogen depleting workouts, then huge carb refeeds to go along with heavy, muscle building workouts.

Both systems obviously work, but they’re arguably very extreme and for myself a bit too much.  However they were very helpful in that I was able to adopt some of the principles and practices into my own Body Recomp plan.

 

Every Other Day dieting

Not to be confused with every other day fasting.

I saw people talking about this on the Lyle McDonald forums.  It alternates higher calorie days with lower calorie days, which correspond to your workouts, which are also to be done every other day, as in the classical “Mon, Wed, Fri” workout schedule many people follow.  So you eat more on workout days, and eat less on rest days.  And they alternate back and forth.

I tried it briefly, but I don’t like the Mon, Wed, Fri approach to workouts for several reasons, and the diet was too much of a jump from one day to the next.  Going from “High to Low” was too much from day to day.  Too much of a contrast.  But I thought to myself, what if I put a ‘medium’ day in between?  Instead of going from High-to-Low then back to High again, back and forth, it would be a more gradual transition from High-to-Med-to-Low, then repeat.  (Yes, to restart that cycle, you go from the last ‘Low’ to the first ‘High’ again which is a jump).  This more gradual wave effect also lines up perfectly with the workout routine I’d adapted from decades of training experience (addressed below under exercise).  And it would also allow for some glycogen depletion (on the ‘Low’ day, along with CFB use) followed by a big workout and carb re-feed on the beginning of the next cycle (first ‘High’ day of the next cycle).

 

Carb Backloading & Biorhythm diets

There was a study where they had the subjects eat little carbs in the morning and day, and saved them all for night time.  This was testing the observation that our insulin sensitivity works on a circadian rhythm, and is higher in the morning than at night.  So the idea was that you would want your blood glucose (and thus insulin) low in the mornings, since you’re highly sensitive to insulin and it would be easier to store fat during those hours… and somewhat resistant at night time, so your body is less likely to store fat, so that is when you would eat your carbs… since it matters less that your BGL and insulin spikes since your body is less receptive to insulin during those hours, less likely to respond, less likely to store fat due to the increased insulin.

The study showed the subjects who saved their carbs until night time lost more weight.  (Note:  this study has no yet been duplicated, and the group who ate their carbs in the morning do so in several meals, instead of one big meal, like the nighttime carb group did.  Thus the study should not be seen as conclusive.)

This study was one of the proofs used in the making of “Carb Backloading” (CBL) diet.  Now the CBL diet has had a lot of legitimate criticisms for many of its claims and study links (which often don’t support its claims) and I am in no way endorsing it, but only referencing it.  So CBL advises going no carb during the day and afternoon hours, saving your carbs until night, and even then you eat carbs only on certain days.

Another aspect of CBL is doing phases of ketogenic dieting, where you deplete glycogen and burn fat, then eat your carbs before your workout, often the night before, so to fill glycogen for the upcoming workout.  Ultimately Carb Backloading (and “Carb Nite,” another diet by the same author) are really just cyclical and targeted ketogenic diets.

The Biorhythm Diet also uses the ‘eat your carbs at night’ study to inform how it sets up its eating schedule, saving carbs for night.  (The same author of the Bioryhtem diet also uses the “Myo-Reps” exercise technique, which we address in the Body Recomp plan and cover in detail under “Hacks” chapter)

Ironically, the “energy crash” and subsequent grogginess that many complain about with carbs is actually built into the Biorhythm Diet.  Eat your carbs at night, and since you’re going to bed soon, who cares if the carbs make you groggy?  It will make going to sleep even easier.

The Body Recomp plan will also use this principle, saving our carbs for night, and only strategically in such a way to work with glycogen levels, workout schedule, and factors in longevity.

 

DIET SUMMARY:

• So one should eat enough protein to maintain and build muscle, especially when burning fat.
• This will be .7 gm/lb bodyweight per day during a caloric surplus and at least 1gm/lb bodyweight per day during deficits
• One should eat at least 30-40 gm protein per meal to induce maximal muscle protein synthesis. Meals should be spaced out to wait for the MPS “refractory window” to reset, so as to induce MPS again and again with each meal.
• Meals should be timed with post workout refeeds, to get the maximum MPS effect from protein + exercise
• If you do a protein shake, mix types due to different digestion and absorption speeds; mix whey + casein + egg + whatever other types you wish. Always include whey.
• Fats will dominate the morning hours. On certain days, this will go along with morning Cool Fat Burner session, and may also be involved with longevity practices, cellular autophagy, and so on.
• Carbs will be limited to post workout and in the evenings, and will vary between little to no carbs, to slow carbs, to regular starchy carbs, to all-out junk food.
• Pre- and pro- biotics will go with the carb refeeds and high-fiber meals.
• Fasting will be optional, as it may be easy to lose muscle from fasting
• Anabolic (muscle building) days will have a slight caloric surplus. Metabolic (fat burning) days will be a large deficit.  Adaptive days we will go by the day’s goals and self-report.
• Diet (along with exercise, cold thermogenesis, and even NEAT) will all be cyclical in nature. Both throughout a given day, and certainly day to day, we will cycle everything, to keep things fresh and allow for constant growth and variety, as well as help instill “metabolic flexibility”

 

The specific applications of these principles will be shown in the “Body Recomp” chapter.

 

Exercise

When people try and “lose weight,” upwards of nearly half of what they lose can be muscle loss.  This means a lowered resting metabolism and lower calorie burning, lowered insulin sensitivity, lower work capacity, lower health, lower fitness, lower longevity, lower everything.  It is inexcusable.  There is absolutely nothing commendable about losing weight if you have to lose a lot of your muscle to do it.  “Skinny-fat” is not acceptable.

The role of exercise on the regular, basic, maintenance version of the Body Recomp plan will be to preserve and slowly gain muscle while steadily losing fat.

The role of exercise on the Clean Bulk version of the Body Recomp plan will be to quickly gain muscle while gaining no fat or even slowly lose fat.

The role of exercise on the Metabolic version of the Body Recomp plan will be to quickly lose fat, while maintaining as much muscle as possible, while increasing exercise work capacity and increasing factors in longevity.

 

Your muscle burns calories, even at rest.  Even just lying there doing nothing, your muscles burn calories.  They are a major contributor to your resting metabolic rate (RMR).  If you lose muscle, your RMR goes down.  Now if you eat what used to be maintenance calories, it’s now a surplus since you lost muscle and your RMR went down.  Now you gain fat eating what used to be maintenance.  This is why we must preserve muscle, even when in a deficit and burning fat and losing weight.

Exercise, building muscle, working out, it all creates a positive feedback loop.  With increased workload capacity you can do more in everyday life.  This is not just a matter of increased muscle tissue.  Even factors such as your cellular mitochondria will be enhanced, allowing for more work, better fat burning, increased metabolic flexibility, increased insulin sensitivity, and maximized longevity throughout every moment of the day.

There are 3 primary ways to preserve muscle while in a caloric deficit, to make your body burn fat and not tear down muscle:

1. Eat enough protein, at the right times
2. Do enough of the right type of exercise
3. Cold thermogenesis hormonal response (adiponectin and irisn)

 

The Strength / Endurance spectrum

All physical activity can be classified on the Strength / Endurance spectrum.  Where an activity sits on the spectrum describes what systems it works, what effects it causes, what benefits and adaptations it gives, and what its limitations are.

Left to right… from most intensive (and shortest duration) on the left, to the least intense (and longest duration) on the right.

 

Strength & Explosiveness – all-out effort.  Max effort lifting, jumping, and sprinting.  The most you can lift, but you can only do it very briefly.

Example:  a weight you can only lift 1-3 times.  The highest you can jump or fastest you can sprint over a short distance.

Duration:  a few seconds

Works the nervous system and the contractile elements of muscle; energetically works the ATP system which burns stored ATP and creatine phosphate within muscle cells.

Exercises:  Lifting weights in the 1-5 rep range.  Plyometric training (jumps and bounds).  Sprint training.

Benefits:  increases muscle strength, somewhat size, and somewhat insulin sensitivity.  Fast visual results.
Drawbacks:  high risk for burnout, adaptation, and plateaus.  High risk for injury (if done improperly).

 

Muscle Hypertrophy – work that makes the muscles get bigger (or maintains size during a caloric deficit).

Works the muscular system, both the contractile elements of the muscle cell, and possibly other non-contractile elements as well (so-called “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy”).   Energetically works the ATP system which burns stored ATP and creatine phosphate within muscle cells.

Exercises: Lifting weights in the 8 to 15 rep range.  Possibly higher rep range, so long as carried out to muscle failure.

Duration:  typically less than 30 seconds

Benefits:  increases muscle size, insulin sensitivity, and strength.  Fast visual results.

Drawbacks:  moderate risk for burnout and adaptation.  Moderate risk for injury (if done improperly).

NOTE: see how both max effort and hypertrophy training use the ATP creatine phosphate system as fuel?  This is why supplementing with creatine powder can help one be stronger and give slighter bigger muscles; it supplies that fuel for high intensity work, and the extra creatine in the muscles creates an osmotic effect, pulling in more water into the muscle cells.

 

Anaerobic Power Endurance – high intensity, high effort work with minimal rest that taxes the muscles in a metabolic way as well as works the cardiovascular system.

Example:  circuit, station, and interval training.  HIIT, MetCons, Crossfit, as well as many sports (wrestling, MMA, basketball, tennis, etc.)

Works the glycolytic system within the muscles, and the cardiovascular system (heart and lungs).  Burns blood glucose and liver glycogen for fuel.

Benefits:  variety makes it fun.  “Functional” for many real-life activities.  Allows for moderate muscle work and moderate cardio work.  Increases insulin sensitivity and may be good for AMPK / longevity.
Drawbacks:  moderate to high risk for burnout.  Moderate to high risk for injury (if poor programming, no cycling).  Excessive, chronic amounts can increase oxidative damage to mitochondria (possibly having a negative effect on longevity.)

 

Steady State Cardio – moderate to low intensity, works the cardiovascular system.

Example:  moderate and constant jogging, rowing, cycling

Works the oxidative system burning fat and oxygen for fuel.

Benefits:  relatively easy.  Good for cardiovascular fitness and heart health.

Drawbacks:  takes time to for an effective dose.  Can be hard on the joints.  Can limit or even have a negative effect on muscle size and strength.

NOTE:  there may be a phenomenon of super-high rep, cardio-induced muscle hypertrophy.  I’d noticed on when I would jog (every so often on the maintenance version of the Body Recomp plan, and weekly on the Metabolic variant) that my quads would often be pumped after the run and sore the next day, as though I’d done a super high rep resistance workout.  So I used jogging as a variation on super high rep work.

Just recently a study came out showing that this type of training can in fact induce a type of hypertrophy… however the size increases come from water and ‘sarcoplasmic’ elements of hypertrophy.  Not from an increase in the contractile elements of the muscle.  This means it’s unlikely to increase strength, may not be as long lasting an adaptation, may not be as functional, etc. as the more desirable increase in contractile elements that come with intentional resistance work.

Therefore we should not rely on super high rep cardio work as a means to maintain muscle mass in the targeted muscles (quads during jogging, back during rows, etc)

 

Low Intensity State Cardio – low intensity work.

Example:  walking

Works the oxidative system burning fat and oxygen for fuel.

Benefits:  easy.  Practically no risk for injury.

Drawbacks:  has almost no effect on muscles, minimal effect on the cardiovascular system unless done for a significant duration (many hours weekly).

 

RELATED TOPICS:

General Physical Preparedness

Being competent at the entire strength/ endurance spectrum.  One may focus one area or another, but they still maintain a base level of fitness everywhere on the spectrum and are competent in all activities.

 

Muscle fiber type: Fast twitch vs Slow twitch

Human muscle fibers can be grouped into two broad categories: fast twitch and slow twitch.  Every person’s muscles are made up of a mixture of fast twitch and slow twitch fibers, determined by genetics.

Fast twitch fibers are strong and explosive, but tire quickly.  Slow twitch fibers are weaker, but can work for long periods before tiring.  Slow twitch fibers look red, due to high levels of myoglobin, a protein similar to hemoglobin (in red blood cells) that binds oxygen.  Thus slow twitch muscles use oxygen for fuel.  Fast twitch muscles do not burn oxygen, but instead use ATP, and appear white.  Chicken breast (white meat) would be fast twitch fibers.  Rarely do chickens fly, but when they flap their wings, it’s fast and powerful.  Chicken thighs (dark meat) would be slow twitch fibers.  They stand all day and do not move fast.

Notice the correlation between muscle fiber type and the Strength/Endurance spectrum?  Fast twitch muscles line up with the left-most activities.  They’re fast, explosive, burn ATP for fuel, and tire quickly, just like those activities to the left.  Slow twitch fibers are weaker but can go for a long time.  They burn oxygen for fuel.  Just like the activities to the right.

Note:  There is also a sub-type of fast twitch fiber that also has properties of slow twitch fibers (it is powerful like fast twitch fibers, but can burn oxygen for fuel, has a lot of myglogin and mitochondria).   Those types of fibers would dominate in the mid-range metabolic activities on the Strength/Endurance spectrum.

While we’re born with the ratio of fast to slow twitch fibers in our various muscles, training can somewhat alter the performance of your fibers.  If you train for strength or for endurance, all of your fibers will, to some degree, adapt to serve those purposes.  Also certain types of muscles tend to naturally have more of one type over another.  For example, the calves and forearm muscles, muscles that have to work a long time at lower strength levels, tend to have a higher percentage of slow twitch fibers.  World class athletes tend to have naturally high levels of muscles fibers to match their sports.  Sprinters will have a lot of fast twitch fibers, marathon runners would have a higher percentage of slow twitch fibers.

One more trait to the fibers:  fast twitch fibers tend to be larger than slow twitch.  Another reason why strength work (which relies most on fast twitch fibers) would lead to larger muscle size.  Slow twitch fibers have more mitochondria, so could theoretically play a role in longevity.

The various Body Recomp variants will hit all muscles types, at all activities.  Even the Cool Fat Burner (via mitochondrial biogenesis) can effect at least slow twitch muscles.

 

No, you cannot “reshape” your muscles.

Humans cannot selectively activate part of a muscle.  It either fires off (ie, contracts) or it does not.  We also cannot change the shape of a muscle.  We can make it bigger, but we cannot change the actual shape.  When people say do this or that exercise to “lengthen” your muscles and so on, this is wrong.  It doesn’t happen.  Pilates does not “lengthen” your muscles, preacher curls do not target the bottom of your biceps any more than any other part of the bicep muscle.  If you feel preacher curls at the bottom of your bicep, that is an issue of muscle stretch, or of connective tissue soreness and so on.

That’s not to say that exercise variation isn’t important – quite the opposite.  We will intentionally incorporate all manner of exercise variation and assistance work.  But doing different exercises does not induce different shapes to the muscles they hit.

Also note that there are different muscles that make up different parts of your body.  For example, there isn’t just your “chest muscle.”  There are the pectoris major and minor.  You could theoretically each of those differently.  So in that scenario, doing different chest exercises could theoretically allow for a different shape of your chest, because it’s hitting the different chest muscles differently.

 

A few words on “cardio.”

What is cardio?  And does metabolic training and “lifting weights fast” count as “cardio?”

The word “cardio” is thrown around a lot.  Most use it to mean any activity that gets your heartrate up.  And if you’re someone who is starting from scratch, with no conditioning, then pretty much any activity that elevates heartrate will bring some sort of adaptation and improvement.  But that’s technically not cardio.

Cardio activity is that which works the cardiovascular system.  That means the heart.  It also means breathing, or “VO2.”  (VO2 is the maximum amount of oxygen you can use, typically while exercising)

If one goes by this definition – VO2 max and heartrate – then most forms of exercise described as cardio are technically not cardio.  This includes many types of circuit, station, interval, and HIIT.  That means regular kettlebell work, Metcons, Crossfit…. Those aren’t cardio, at least compared to more ‘traditional’ forms of cardio that elicit the highest VO2 max.  Studies have even shown that, according to the standards of VO2 max, that high intensity strength training does not improve cardiovascular fitness.

Ultimately it comes down to this:  if you’re taxing a system, you will improve that system.  So even activities like metabolic training and high intensity training and interval training… all of those types of activities (that are in the middle of the Strength / Endurance spectrum) that don’t fit the technical definition of “cardio” and supposedly aren’t thought of as ideal for heart health will still improve endurance and work capacity and to some degree, your heart health and VO2.

However certain activities are best to illicit certain improvements.  If you want to maximize heart health and cardiovascular fitness, then eventually you’ll have to do activities in that realm that are exclusively cardio activities.  That means VO2 max work.  That means breathing hard takes precedence over working your muscles.  An exception would be certain workouts that perfectly combine elements of HIIT and VO2 max work.  We’ll cover those in the Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan.

 

So where you spend your time on the Strength/Endurance spectrum will determine what work you do and what benefits you reap.

 

The regular, maintenance version of the Body Recomp plan – slowly building muscle while steadily losing fat – will have a solid base of Power, Strength, and Hypertrophy work, but will also include elements of HIIT and even occasional Cardio and LISS.

 

The Clean Bulk variant of the Body Recomp plan – quickly building muscle without gaining fat – will focus almost entirely on the Power, Strength, and Hypertrophy end of the spectrum, with occasional LISS thrown in.

 

The Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan – quickly burning fat while maintain muscle – will have a minimal amount of Hypertrophy work, with a large focus on the Anaerobic Power Endurance and a solid amount of Cardio and some LISS thrown in.

 

Factors in improvement & growth

 

Power, strength, and hypertrophy.  To make muscles grow, these are the most important factors:

1. Mechanical load. In other words, resistance.  Using your muscles to move weight.  It could be your bodyweight, it could be resistance bands, it could be machines, it could be free weights, etc.  Mechanical load increases MPS and effects the contractile elements of the muscle cell.
   1. Example: lifting on machines.
2. Time under tension. This is the total time during a given workout that a particular muscle is working and under load.  Magnifies the effects of both mechanical load and metabolic stress.
   1. Example: super-slow reps.  High rep work.
3. Metabolic stress. When you work, your muscles produce various metabolites and ‘waste’ products and experience intermittent hypoxia.  Part of what makes a muscle bigger and stronger is its adaptation to being put in the environment of these waste products.  Metabolic stress allows for more muscle fiber recruitment, muscle cell swelling, and induces cellular growth factors.
   1. Example: blood flow restriction lifting.  Super slow negatives.  Weighted stretch.

 

Metabolic & HIIT adaptations:

• Improved creatine phosphate energy system. The ability of your muscles to use fast burning fuel systems
• Moderate cardiovascular adaptations
• Large lactate and subsequent growth hormone response (fat burning, tissue repair)

 

Aerobic and cardio adaptations:

• Increased cardiac output and a strengthening and healthy thickening of the heart
• Change (usually lowering) in resting heartrate
• VO2 max; you can take in more air, pull more oxygen from that inhaled air, and more efficiently use it
• Delayed onset of lactate buildup (takes longer for your muscles to fatigue)
• Mitochondrial number, density, and efficiency in the muscles (muscles process energy more efficiently; enhances not only performance, but possibly longevity)

 

 

Work, Frequency, & Volume.  How much, how often.

What is the right number of reps, sets, and how many days a week?

It has been shown that the best range to illicit neuromuscular improvements is in the 30-60 reps range.  That is per muscle.  So one must work a muscle group at an adequate intensity for at least 30 reps, but as high as 60 reps.  This is of course a general estimation, but a good one.

Some situations such as max effort lifting, may have one lift less than 30 reps in a workout.  Example:  1-rep max squats.  It’s highly unlikely anyone will do 30 individual 1-rep max squats to comprise their workout.  Other plans, involving high rep workouts, may have to go well above 60 reps to get an effect.  Example:  pushups.  Doing only 60 pushups will not be enough to spur muscle growth.

However the general plan, if one is doing resistance work, and doing either Power/Strength work with sets in the 1-5 rep range, or hypertrophy work in the 6-12 rep range, the grand total should be around 30 – 60 reps.

This can be done with a mix of reps per set.
For example, for Power / Strength work:

Set 1 – 6 reps
Set 2 – 5 reps
Set 3 – 4 reps
Set 4 – 3 reps
Set 5 – 4 reps
Set 6 – 5 reps
Set 7 – 6 reps

That would be 7 total sets, adding up to a grand total of 33 reps for the workout.  This would be the classical “pyramid” set format, as the rep per set go from high to low to high (6 down to 3, back up to 6).  (technically it’s called a pyramid because the weight used goes up, then back down, but obviously the reps will have the opposite volume, since you lift a heavier weight less times, as in this example)

More example of power/strength set schemes might be:

— 10 sets of 3 reps in each set, for 30 reps.
— 6 sets with 5 reps in each set, for 30 reps.
So long as a particular setup gets one to the minimum 30 reps per muscle group per workout.

Keep in mind the rep range per set.  1-5 tends to work power / strength, 6-12+ tends to work strength / hypertrophy.  For our purposes we will generally not mix rep ranges between power and hypertrophy ranges (more below).

Interestingly, it’s been shown that while lower rep ranges favor strength enhancements, it is total volume that probably dictates overall muscle hypertrophy.  In other words, the total amount of work (lifting) you do, dictates muscle size.  Not how heavy or light the weight is.

In a recent groundbreaking experiment where the subjects did either heavy or light squats for 8 weeks, both groups still got the same muscle size increases.  The heavy group did 10 sets of only 3 reps per set.  (Because the weight was heavy, they could really only do 3 reps at a time.)

The light group did only 3 sets, but did 10 reps per set, since the weight was lighter.

Thus total work volume – the grand total reps for the workout – was identical between heavy and light groups.  30 reps total.

By the end of the study period, both groups showed identical size increases to their quadriceps (thigh) muscles.  It is important to note that the heavy group did show more strength increases.  Interestingly, self-reports from the heavy group implied the workouts were far more grueling than the light group, and that subjects sometimes had a hard time even finishing a workout.  After all, going so heavy that you can only do triples (3 reps) for every workout for 8 weeks straight would be enough to burn anyone out.  This is why the Body Recomp plan uses cycling in every aspect, especially exercise.  One will never do that (or any single) type of workout for 8 weeks straight on the Body Recomp plan.

So when dieting down, we cannot allow ourselves to lose muscle.  And the best way to keep muscle, is to do resistance work, for strength and hypertrophy.  The ideal rep range tends to be around 30-60 reps per muscle per workout.

 

How often should one work a muscle? 

Probably ideal would be twice a week.

In the Body Recomp plan, one will work every major muscle group twice a week.

In the general, maintenance variant, a muscle group gets worked one day at strength/power, then the second day at either hypertrophy with occasional higher rep (lighter weight) hypertrophy, or even metabolic work.

In the Clean Bulk variant, one will do one day strength power, the other day hypertrophy, per each major muscle group.

In the Metabolic variant, one will do one day hypertrophy, the other day metabolic and occasionally steady state cardio, per muscle group.

So every variant of the Body Recomp plan will have one work each major muscle group twice per week, and we will hit at least two different areas on the Strength / Endurance spectrum within any two cycles.

 

So the numbers look like this:

Reps range and totals for a particular muscle group, per Body Recomp variant:
(note: the “first” and “second” days are not consecutive days – you can’t work a muscle two days in a row like that)

 

Variant:

Maintenance                  

first day                    second day           alternate second day
(strength)                (hypertrophy)          (metabolic)

   (per set)                   1-5 reps                       6-12+ reps              20-30 reps
(total reps)               ~ 30 total                   40-60 total              100+ total

 

Clean Bulk   

first day                                second day
(strength)                           (hypertrophy)

   (per set)                      1-5 reps                                6-12+ reps
(total reps)                  ~ 30 total                             40-60 total

 

Metabolic                        

first day                                second day
(hypertrophy)                   (metabolic)

(per set)                       6-12+ reps                           20-30 reps
(total reps)                    ~60 total                              100+ total

 

Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense or is too abstract; it will be laid out in clear, simple detail in the Body Recomp chapter.

 

Muscle protein synthesis after the workout.

Exercise induced MPS can continue up to 48 hours after a workout.  So your body is still working, still building the muscles that were trained in the previous workouts.  This again points to the need for dietary protein long after the workout.

This also points to the need for breaks for each muscle group, before working them again.  Just as we eat protein to induce MPS, then wait for the refractory period to end so we can eat again and again induce MPS, in a similar fashion exercise induced MPS, but we must wait for recovery before working the muscles again.  Twice a week allows this to happen.

NOTE: some of the more exotic methods we’ll use can call for increased recovery time.  For example, supersets can take more days to recover.  The way to avoid this is the replace the old workout with the new, instead of adding the new to the old.  Keep total volume (total work) roughly the same.  This should help minimize excessive muscle damage and recovery time.

 

Periodization.  How do you know you’re improving?

“Soft goals” and intuitive training – so-called “Auto-Regulation.”

Periodization is the system whereby one gradually and intentionally increases variables in training to predictably cause improvements.

So one may slowly increase weight.  Or reps.  Or sets.  Or distance jogged or rowed or swam.  Or reduce the speed of a sprint, or reduce rest periods.  Increase the height of a jump.  Etc.  With formal periodization, you have particular expectations for each workout, and you must achieve those expectations to verify improvement.

I do not use periodization, and the Body Recomp plan will not either.

Not formally.  I do not record reps or sets or times etc.  The most I do is keep mental notes, on certain things.  But I do not record them.  I more or less only keep soft goals, keep a general idea of what I’m doing, and make sure I meet certain criteria (for example, the 30-60 reps per muscle per workout, as mentioned above).

Soft goals.

I do not keep specific records, and I do not have specific goals.  I have ‘soft’ goals.  A general idea of the direction I want to go, and the general goals I want to reach.

Now within that general, open system, I may occasionally adopt more specific goals for a particular workout or a particular achievement.  But even then, I am not specific, not regimented, and not limited to any particular way of getting there.  So long as I keep moving in the general direction of achieving that goal, then I’m progressing.  And I’m enjoying my workouts.  And I’m making improvements that are noticeable after every single workout, specific meal, or Cool Fat Burner session.

This has come to be known as “Auto-Regulation” training.  This is how I’ve trained now for decades.

Ultimately this means you do whatever you feel like doing.  For your body, your mind, your particular goals.  You go with however and wherever you are on that day.  This can mean going heavy or light, doing metabolic or cardio or weights, it can mean how many reps or sets, it can mean the particular exercises, it can mean how long your rest periods are, it can mean anything.  All of it can be changed to suit your needs as you go.

HOWEVER… we still do have some rules and principles that should help inform what we do.  The importance of protein.  The need for resistance work.  That certain reps and ranges and total volume will have specific effects on our muscles.  That different types of work effect the body differently.  That for general physical preparedness, we should hit every area of the strength/endurance spectrum.  That different foods have different hormonal effects.  That different levels of intensity of cold exposure bring different benefits.

In other words, there still should be some wisdom to your choices.  Auto-regulation training doesn’t mean you do any old whimsical thing.  It means you listen to your body, but you still acknowledge certain facts and truths to training, and work within those parameters.

 

An example:  in the summer of 2015 I thought it would be nice to be able to do 50/50 (right/left) snatches with a 53lb kettlebell with only 1 hand change (no setting down the kettlebell; “resting” must be done with the kettlebell locked overhead).  And I wanted to achieve this while maintaining my deadlifting 1-rep-max and maintaining (or even improving) everything else.  In other words, maintain maximal strength in the same muscles, while increasing their metabolic abilities (for the KB snatches).  I gave myself the soft goal of hoping to achieve it over a 3 month period.  (over the summer)  I started at being able to easily do 30/30 snatches.  I slowly but consistently did what was needed to slowly show improvement and keep me moving in the direction of that goal.   (versions of how this might work are covered in the Metabolic variant of the Body Recomp plan)  By the fall I was able to do 50/50.  This took maybe a month or so longer than the initial goal, but that was fine by me.  At no time did I record anything, or force myself to do a workout I didn’t feel like doing.  It was an easy, natural progression that did not proceed according to a rigid schedule or plan.

 

The “hierarchy” of how to adjust, using the intuitive, auto-regulated mindset

• First one should intend on doing a workout (or meal, or CFB session) as planned. With exercise, that means hitting whatever area of the strength/endurance spectrum you’re supposed to hit, with the exercises you’re supposed to hit it
• If for whatever reason that can’t happen, one just isn’t feeling it, etc., then one should first try and complete the same level of work (on the strength/endurance spectrum), but through different means. (change exercises to be done)
• If one isn’t feeling that, then one should change the nature of the workout (or meal, or CFB session). In other words, shift along the strength/endurance spectrum to a different intensity…but still hit the same muscle groups.

For example:  heavy lower body “Push” (quads/legs) day.  (In this example ignoring diet and CFB, addressing only exercise)

Lead up:  The day before I know what’s coming.  I look forward to it, knowing I’m going to improve, I’m going to move heavy weights, afterwards my muscles will be spent and kinda pumped, and I know I just grew and improved myself and accomplished something measurable.   (And after I’ll eat a huge PWO carb refeed, then later that night, a low level CFB session, which I’m also prepared for)
What happens — The day of:

• I go into the workout, do whatever ‘rituals’ I need to maintain focus into the gym, and do a nice hard heavy front squat workout. I planned on and completed 10 sets of triples (3 reps).  I’m totally focused the whole time, almost in a flow state, no distractions, everything goes into my workout, and I perform slightly better than I ever have before

OR…

• Everything is going well leading up to the gym, but for whatever reason, I don’t quite feel like doing 10 sets of heavy 3 rep sets. It doesn’t matter why.  Maybe my energy isn’t quite there, maybe I feel a weakness or tweak when I move a certain way, whatever the reason, the point is I don’t quite feel it.  So instead, I still do heavy, demanding work… but I change things up.  I do a different exercise.  Or I change up any of the many variables (see below) or I do assistant work instead, hitting the same muscles, but with various other exercises.  So I still hit the same muscles at the same level on the strength/endurance spectrum, but I do it by a completely different means.

OR…

• If I get to the gym and I’m really not feeling it, I’ll change up whatever is needed to get me to still hit the same muscles, even if that means moving down (or up) the strength/endurance spectrum. So in this example, maybe I’ll do metabolic or cardio work that hits the legs, instead of formal resistance work.

The point here is that one still should have a good idea of what they’re doing as per the plan, and plan on adhering to it.  Auto-regulation does not mean you whimsically just do “whatever you feel like” when you go to workout.  It means you monitor yourself, how you feel, etc.  And you do your planned workout if you can.  But for whatever reason you just “don’t feel it” leading up to the workout… then you adapt, play it by ear, and adjust accordingly.

 

Monitoring progress

One can gradually lift heavier weights.  Or more reps per set at the same weight.  Or more total volume for the muscle for the workout.  Or someone could bring up lagging muscle groups with special exercises (“Hacks & Tricks” chapter)  Or they improve their breathing — VO2 max.  The reduce rest periods between sets.  They reduce their 500m row time, or their sprints get faster, or they can do more of them.  Or their waistline goes down.  They look better in the mirror.  Their cholesterol numbers improve.

There are many, many variables where we can improve both along the strength-endurance spectrum, as well as our physicality and health markers.  It’s nearly impossible not to improve at something if one is actually trying.  The way to constantly be improving on multiple fronts at the same time, is by using cycling and variety.

 

Cycling & Variety

I get bored easily.  And my body adapts quickly.  The more experienced one is, the quicker one adapts.  I first began cycling food and exercise routines back when I competed in what would later be called MMA in the mid-90’s, and have included cycling in all important “growth” activities ever since.  Every aspect of the Body Recomp plan – diet, exercise, and cold thermogenesis – will cycle.  Every day will be different.  Even repeating cycles can have different content on the same repeated day of the cycle.  This is especially true of exercise.

Let’s look at what can be varied just within a single given exercise:

• Weight / resistance
• Rep range
• Number of sets
• Total volume
• Rest periods
• Range of motion
• Speed /cadence of each rep, both on the positive, negative, and pause portion of the movement
• Intentional pauses
• Increasing/decreasing resistance (bands, chains, weight releasers)
• Partial range of motion
• Deficit lifting
• Isometrics
• Weighted stretches
• Different bars, handles, and grips
• Stabilization reps
• Machines vs free weights vs ballistic and plyometric methods

And all of that is just within a single individual exercise!  Now consider all the different exercises one can do for any given muscle group!  This leads us to…

 

Exercise variety– conjugate method & assistance work

Probably the most famous method for incorporating variety within training is the “conjugate” method, as promoted by the famed Westside Barbell powerlifting gym.  While we won’t be training like Westside – they are professional powerlifters who use gear and other aids – we can still adopt and incorporate some of the same principles.

 

The conjugate method, assistance work, & special exercises

The body adapts to anything.  The more experienced, the faster it adapts.  The way to keep progressing is to increase stimuli, but also change the methods.  This means changing the particular exercise, as well as how they’re done.  It can also mean finding weak areas of a movement, and focusing on strengthening that weak point.  It can mean maintaining a certain level of competence on the strength/endurance spectrum, while bringing up weaker areas.  (Example, maintaining maximal strength, while bringing up a lagging cardiovascular system)

By cycling and alternating various exercises and all the other variables involved, one can constantly progress.

 

EXAMPLE:

The different exercises along the strength/endurance spectrum:
–  max effort days  (1-5 reps per set)
–  speed days (lighter weights, done explosively, sometimes along w/ resistance bands)
–  plyometrics, sprints, and similar explosive work
–  hypertrophy days  (6-12 reps per set)
–  higher rep hypertrophy days  (15-25+ reps per set)
–  cardio hypertrophy work

 

AS APPLIED TO LEGS/QUADS FOR EXAMPLE:

–  max effort days  — heavy front squats
–  speed days – light front squats with rubber bands (50% max weight), done fast and explosively
–  plyometrics – box jumps & depth drops
–  hypertrophy days  — Gironda (“sissy”) squats
–  higher rep hypertrophy days  — burpees interval training
–  cardio hypertrophy work – jog long enough that your quads are pumped and worked

 

Notice every single exercise is different and yet still hits the quads, and we’re hitting the quads all along the strength/endurance spectrum.  Which means we’re hitting different muscles fibers and energy production systems, and in some cases increasing work capacity, conditioning, and even working the cardiovascular system.

NOTE: one should not switch exercises too frequently, or no progress will be made.  Even people who have been working out for years and who quickly adapt still probably shouldn’t change exercise more than every 3-4 weeks.  Beginners could easily go 5-6 weeks before changing things up.  When one changes things up, they still try and hit the same area of the strength/endurance spectrum for a given muscle group on the given day of the cycle for their particular plan.

Also keep in mind:  whenever you switch to a new setup, you will probably feel a little weak for the first workout/cycle.  This is because both your neuromuscular and energy systems need to adapt to the new routine.  By the 2nd week you’ll begin making improvements, and by the 3rd, one is at their previous max.

 

How does one exactly put all this together?

What exercises?
How many reps or sets?
When does one cycle to new stuff, and what do they change to?
What days of the week?

And how does that work with the Cool Fat Burner and diet?

The Body Recomp chapter will give a concrete plan, but here is an example of the method we’ll use:

 

                Background:  The ol’ PUSH, PULL, LEGS… kindof

Back in college I fell into the old “Push, Pull, Legs” workout regime.  This was largely intuitive and common sense and seemed the most efficient way to hit everything optimally.  It means you do “pushes” (usually chest and triceps) on Day 1, then “pulls” (lats, back, biceps) on Day 2, then finish by doing legs (squats, deadlifts, etc) on Day 3.

 

 

It was a way to hit all major muscle groups in short order and in a way where they already worked together.  For example, doing triceps after chest and biceps after back, since both groups of arm muscles would already be pre-fatigued since they’re helper / stabilizer / supporter muscles in the larger lifts that hit the chest and back.  Another benefit of this setup was that Day 3 Legs really seemed to finish things off nicely, cause a huge hormonal release (growth hormone) that really seemed to build the body back up after the 3 day cycle.   When you wake up the morning after the 3^rd day (legs) you would often feel thick and solid, like the hormonal release really helped rebuild the body.   (I can’t remember if I took the 4^th day off, or if I started again on Pushes.  It was a long time ago, the mid-90’s)

When I was starting to get back into shape again around 2010 and using the first prototypes of the Cool Fat Burner, I realized one could use theoretically use cold thermogenesis to magnify and accelerate the whole process of glycogen deletion.

This means one could do carb refeeds much more often.  This would help solve the problem of lowered leptin levels that happen during a prolonged deficit, and to which one-a-week refeeds don’t solve (since leptin will not stay raised for the whole week til the next refeed).

 

Here is the problem — the optimal way to do a carb refeed is to have it:

• After already being glycogen depleted
• After a really big workout; high intensity, and hitting large muscle groups
• Another workout later that day or the next day, to take advantage of the refilled muscle glycogen

 

Do you see the problem?  There’s no way to really fill all those refeed requirements on the Push, Pulls, Legs approach.  The hardest workout would always be the Legs day, which isn’t until the 3^rd day.  Well if you were already glycogen depleted, the previous 2 days’ workouts would suffer and defeat the purpose.  And refilling glycogen after legs, just to rest the next day with no workout would ‘waste’ the filled muscle glycogen.

Also there is the problem of what exactly do you work on “Day 3 Legs?”  What if you want to do deadlifts?  Ok, but what about the day before, Day 2 Pulls?  You already hit a lot of the same muscles (in the back).  So how are you going to do deadlifts the very next day?

 

So the Body Recomp plan will reverse the order, into “Legs, Push, Pulls,” and further break down ‘Legs’ into “Lower Body Pushes” and/or “Lower Body Pulls.”

 

So here is the generic layout:

A 4-day cycle that repeats…

Day 1                                     Day 2                                     Day 3                                     Day 4
Anabolic                               Anabolic/Adaptive            Adaptive                              Metabolic
Pushes  Legs                      Pushes (upper body)      Pulls (upper body)               rest

Strength (cycle 1)             Strength (cycle 1)             Hypertrophy (cycle 1)     CFB + fat burning
Hypertrophy (cycle 2)    Hypertrophy (cycle 2)       Strength (cycle 2)             CFB + fat burning
CARB RE-FEED ^^^

Notice how the 4 day cycle repeats.  So you’ll hit each major body part twice in an 8 day period.  You’ll hit each once at the Power Strength level (1-5 reps, 30 total reps) and once at the Strength/Hypertrophy (7-15 reps, 50+ total reps) on the generic setup.  (Anabolic and Metabolic variants use different elements along the strength/hypertrophy spectrum)

This setup allows for the carb refeed after the Day 1 Anabolic Leg Pushes workout.  This fits perfects the requirements of a good refeed.

• Glycogen will be depleted from the previous day (Day 4 Metabolic)
• Legs pushes is the biggest workout, deserving the refeed
• Day 2 is the next day, which can also capitalize off the refeed

 

QUESTION:  some may ask, where are “Legs Pulls?”  (hamstrings, glutes, etc)  There are several ways to work them in:

1. These are worked into Day 3 Pulls. Doing only back and biceps every fourth day is overkill and can quite honestly get boring.  So we can add in hamstring and glute work in place of some of the back work every so often, and lose nothing from the back.
2. Legs Pulls can occasionally totally replace Day 3 Pulls if you’re doing something like deadlifts. Deadlifts will hit quads, but also hamstrings and glutes (legs pulls) but also your lats, traps, and biceps, the same muscles you regularly hit on Pulls Day 3.
3. Legs Pulls can sometimes be worked on the same day as Legs Pushes. For example, regular back squats and machine leg presses will hit both your quads (pushes) as well as the hamstrings and glutes (pulls).

The key for working in Legs Pushes vs Pulls, is making them work into the rest of the routine so as to not overwork any muscle group.  The main exercises for legs will be Front Squats, Back Squats, and Deadlifts.  These will be done via Strength work, Hypertrophy work, and cycle in special exercises (speed work, negatives, plyometrics, slow reps, etc. as shown in the “Tricks & Hacks” chapter.)  Assistance work on the legs will include exercises like glute ham raises, stiff legged deadlifts, sissy squats, lunges, leg press, leg curls, Romanian deadlifts, etc.  They tend to go into the Hypertrophy area of work (8-15 reps per set).

Concrete examples will be given in the Body Recomp chapter.

 

How often do you switch exercises?  When do you cycle in special exercises and assistance work?

One should probably do a particular group of exercises, at a particular area on the strength/endurance spectrum, for at least 3-4 weeks.  Then you can switch exercises for each muscle group, but keep them on the same place of the strength/endurance spectrum, for another 3-4 weeks.  Then for 2 weeks you can totally shift everything around and do speed work or metabolic work or something from the ‘Hacks & Tricks’ chapter.  You need to do a thing for at least 3-4 weeks to see progress; you can’t whimsically switch so frequently that the body doesn’t have a chance to adapt and grow.

 

EXAMPLE (using Upper Body Pushes (just the chest) within a 4 Day Body Recomp cycle)

Weeks 1-4

Day 2 Pushes                                     Day 2 Pushes (2^nd 4-day cycle)
Flat bench press                               Incline dumbbell press
3-6 reps per set                                  8-15 reps per set
30-35 reps total                                 40-60 reps total

 

Weeks 5-8

Day 2 Pushes                                     Day 2 Pushes (2^nd 4-day cycle)
Flat dumbbell press                         Incline bench press
3-6 reps per set                                 8-15 reps per set
30-35 reps total                                 40-60 reps total

 

Weeks 9-10

Day 2 Pushes                                                     Day 2 Pushes (2^nd 4-day cycle)
Pushups (both flat and feet raised)            Pushups (both flat and feet raised)
at least 100 total reps                                     at least 100 total reps

 

So in this example of the chest (Day 2 Pushes), one used just a flat and incline bench, did strength and hypertrophy reps, with both a barbell and dumbbells, on different days.  Then we switched both and continued for 4 more weeks.  Then we did 2 weeks of super high rep work with pushups.  After which the entire cycle can begin again, pushing out more weights or more reps, and changing exercises as needed.  Notice this example did not require all sorts of exotic, weird equipment.  Any home gym and certainly any community gym would easily have this basic equipment.

 

Hacks & tricks

See the ‘Hacks & Tricks’ chapter for a list of various alternate exercise strategies to switch to and add into your routine.   See the Body Recomp chapter for a concrete system putting all this together.

 

EXERCISE SUMMARY:

• Muscularity is directly related to longevity
• There is no legitimate reason for everyone to do some type of resistance training
• When dieting (in a caloric deficit) it is easy to lose muscle. Strength, power, and hypertrophy training can help keep this from happening.
• All exercise takes place somewhere on the Strength/Endurance spectrum
• Different activities on the spectrum cause different physical adaptations and benefits
• One should have some level of “general physical preparedness,” and be at least minimally competent at every place on the spectrum
• One can use intuition and auto-regulation to guide their workouts to suit their overall goals and fit their mood on a given day
• However there are also proven laws to exercise and adaptation that should be followed to maximize results
• The general ideal reps range is 30-60 reps per muscle per workout. The general idea number of times to hit a muscle is twice per week.
• Cycling activities and the variables of exercise allows one to keep things fresh and new and allows one to constantly grow and adapt

 

The specific applications of these principles will be shown in the “Body Recomp” chapter.

 

Cold Thermogenesis

Cold thermogenesis with the Cool Fat Burner has already been discussed in the Startup Guide, all over the website, and in the videos.  This is a brief review.

 

Intensity levels – non-shivering vs shivering (Moderate vs High intensity)

Non-shivering thermogenesis means any cold exposure that does not yet induce shivering.  For most this would be like sitting in a 65’F room.  (Though after a while, some may eventually start shivering even at that level)  This is Moderate intensity cold thermogenesis.  Not yet shivering.

Non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) involves brown fat and skeletal muscle uncoupling.  This level of cold exposure boosts metabolism around 10-15% in most subjects.  This is not a large boost, and does not burn a huge amount of calories in real-time.  So to make NST (Moderate intensity) work for weight loss, one must do it many hours a day.  Having said that, Moderate intensity is a very low grade of cold exposure, especially once one becomes cold adapted.  It’s easy to do literally half the day at Moderate intensity.

As was shown in the PET scan experiment video, the Cool Fat Burner can keep BAT active for hours after removing the vest, even if sitting in a 70’F room, a temperature which otherwise would not activate BAT.  If one were to be in a 65’F room after their session, they could achieve a greater effect and would certainly have BAT active the entire time.

Moderate intensity can also begin to enhance glucose uptake.  This can help catch “carb spillover” after a post workout carb refeed.  For those that eat low carb, moderate intensity may also help to induce a fat adapted state (ketosis), where one burns fat instead of glucose as a primary fuel, and may help achieving “metabolic flexibility.”

We will typically use Moderate intensity sessions on the Anabolic Days, after PWO carb refeeds.  We don’t want a huge calorie burn on these days, as we need a slight surplus to build the muscles we worked.

 

Pre-shivering through shivering – High intensity, Hardcore cold thermogenesis.  Even as one approaches shivering, metabolism increases to nearly 100%.  As one enters even subtle, barely noticeable shivering, metabolism jumps to around 300%.  As one goes into noticeable shivering, metabolism can jump up to 400-500%.

So shivering, even at the most subtle, barely noticeable level, can burn calories to rival low-grade exercise.

When one approaches shivering, breathing increases significantly.
At low grade shivering, one may only feel the most subtle twitching in the small muscles of the trunk.  A third party observer would not notice actual shivering, but it is happening, even if only barely.

In the original UCSD indirect calorimetry experiment, most of the time I spend in subtle shiver mode.  And most of that time you can’t even see me shivering, even though we recorded a 300% increased calorie burn.

Various levels of shivering not only burn the highest numbers of calories in real-time, but also causes the highest boosts of the hormones adiponectin and irisin.  This will be used in the Body Recomp plan for its application not only for calorie and fat burning, but for muscular growth and performance and even to systemic health and longevity.

Probably the best way to use hardcore high intensity cold thermogenesis, is to veer into and out of shivering, a sort of interval training, but with shivering instead of exercise.  Interval shivering or “shiver surfing” allows one to go in and out of shivering, thus only spending a fraction of the time actually shivering… yet the overall calorie burn rate stays at the shivering level.

Keep in mind that the fastest way to cold adapt, as well as cause the ‘browning’ of white fat, is to induce shivering.  And cold packs placed against the body can actually cause the “beiging” of the fat underneath, so that they burn more calories than usual.

Shivering also depletes glycogen quickly.  This can help not only with inducing the ketogenic fat-burning state, but by depleting glycogen system-wide from the muscles, one can set up a huge post workout carb refeed.

Hardcore intensity will be a primary tool in creating a caloric deficit on fat burning days.

 

Generally speaking, this is how the Body Recomp plan will integrate the Cool Fat Burner and cold thermogenesis:

• Moderate intensity sessions will happen on Anabolic days, to catch any “carb spillover” from the refeed meal
• Either Moderate or High intensity sessions can used on Adaptive days, depending on the needs of the day
• High intensity sessions will be used on fat burning days to burn massive amounts of calories, deplete glycogen in preparation for the upcoming refeed, and induce hormonal and other changes for systemic health and overall longevity

 

COLD THERMOGENESIS SUMMARY:

• Increasing levels of intensity bring increased calorie burning and other benefits
• Low to Moderate intensity activates brown fat (brown adipose tissue, or BAT)
• BAT causes a mild calorie burn that can add up over many hours
• BAT can also increase glucose uptake, which will have a role in systemic health and post workout carb refeeds
• Higher intensity sessions involve shivering. Shivering can be done at various levels.  At the lowest level of shivering, no physical movement is detectable, as shivering is only happening in the smallest muscles of the deep trunk.  Even this level can approach a 300% metabolic boost.
• Shivering calorie burn numbers rival many types of exercise
• Shivering increases the hormones adiponectin and irisin
• Adiponectin can increase mitochondrial biogenesis, which can enhance muscle function, but may also increase longevity.
• Irisin can lower mysostatin, a protein that limits muscle growth. So by limiting myostatin, irisin may allow for increased muscle growth
• Both adiponectin and irisin can kills certain types of cancer cells. Adiponectin is protective of the cardiovascular system.  Irisin is protective of neural tissue.

 

Supplementation

Supplementation is by definition, that which supplements or adds to your diet.  Most supplements are already found in food or in the body, but at low amounts.  It may not be practical to eat enough food to get the same amounts we can get through formal supplementation.  We will only address supplements here that are proven to work.

 

Protein powder

The easiest and fastest way to get the leanest protein.  Especially helpful on PSMF cutting days.

Should typically use a mix of fast and slow digesting proteins.  Whey plus casein is the most common option.

 

Creatine             

Proven to increase muscular size and strength.  Has no drawbacks.  Is completely safe.  Creatine offers fuel to the ATP high energy system during intense, heavy exercise.

There is no need to ‘load’ creatine.  Simply take 2-3 grams a day, usually with anything that spikes insulin.  That could be a protein shake in the morning, it could be with a carb refeed.  Don’t take it with no carb meals unless that’s all you’re eating that day.

 

Omega-3

Omega 3 fatty acids are typically found as fish oil.  Fish convert algae and other foods they eat into the omega 3 acids in their body.  It is thought that having adequate amounts of fish in the diet can be helpful with cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity, and reduce systemic inflammation.

Note: not all Omega 3 sources are equal.  For example, many use soy as a substrate.  Soy may have hormonal effects and is not ideal in a supplement.

I’ll typically take 4-6 Omega 3 pills in the morning, along with Vitamin D.

 

Vitamin D

Our bodies convert sunlight into vitamin D in our bodies… but many of us do not get enough direct sunlight to make enough vitamin D, which is to say, most of us are clinically deficient of vitamin D.

It is usually better to get vitamins from the original sources, in this case, sunlight.  Since sunlight can also normalize circadian rhythms, this is the best option.   But if you can’t get enough sunlight – which for most would probably be a good 10-20 minutes of exposure to much of the body – then you may want to consider taking vitamin D supplements.

I usually do around 5000IU per day, usually in the morning, with my Omega 3 fish oil and any other fats (fats in coffee, some milk in protein shake, or egg, bacon, sausage breakfat), since vitamin D is fat-soluble and cannot be absorbed unless it is taken with fats.

 

Pre-Workout

I’ve grown to love pre-workout mixes.  I’ve tried quite a few.  Pre-workout drinks are typically taken around 15-20 minutes before your workout begins (“Begins” means when you actually do your first exercise).  They usually last a good half hour or so, before beginning to taper off.

The main ingredient in pre-workout mixes is caffeine, with other substances that may help with certain types of workouts.  A pre-workout mix should help with focus, and may also help the muscles perform slightly better.

Ingredients you should look for:

• Caffeine
  • This is the most important ingredient. Should have around 300 mg per serving

 

Honorable mention:

• Beta-Alanine
  • May help with sets lasting 1-2 minutes in length
• Citruline
  • May help increase work capacity
• Agmatine
  • May help speed up fat burning and weight loss
• Leucine
  • Amino acid that can activate mTOR and induce muscle protein synthesis
  • MPS activation will probably only be helpful if done while there are still amino acids in the bloodstream, thus the leucine should be timed as we have it on the MPS chart earlier in this chapter under ‘Diet’
• Arginine
  • May help with HIIT sessions

 

Probably the best pre-workout mixes I’ve had are Jym and C4.  Jym is more expensive, but has more ingredients.  C4 is a little cheaper and tastes better.

 

Melatonin

Melatonin should be on everyone’s supplement list.  We now know that circadian rhythms are tied to more than just our wake and sleep patterns, but to appetite, energy levels, insulin sensitivity and more.  Disrupted circadian patterns are related to everything from obesity to dementia disorders to cancer.

Your body does not build tolerance to melatonin.  It’s safe to take indefinitely.

I use 3 mg every night around 20 minutes before I intend to be asleep.

(See the ‘Startup Guide’ for more info on melatonin and circadian rhythms)

 

 Fiber Shake

Addressed in detail under “Hacks & Shortcuts” chapter.  Used to both blunt hunger and kill appetite on cutting days, as well as build up the gut biome and blunt excessive insulin spikes before carb refeed meals.

 

ECA stack

Addressed in detail under “Hacks & Shortcuts” chapter.  Not recommended, but listed for educational purposes.

 

Aspirin

The tide keeps going back and forth with aspirin.  Some say it is preventative for heart disease, inflammation, and certain types of cancer.  Then others say that the risks of aspirin – internal bleeding due to its effects of thinning the blood – may outweigh potential benefits.

Ultimately it’s probably depends on many factors.  How old are you?  Do you have a history (or family risk) of heart disease or stroke or cancer?

I personally take aspirin when I do the ECA stack, and often at least the day after.  I also spend a lot of time at high-elevation locations, which can have a ‘thickening’ effect on the blood, so I often take aspirin for that as well.  Finally I have a family history of heart disease and metabolic disorder.

I frequently take mini doses of aspirin (80 to 160 mg – I buy regular aspirin 325 mg, then use a pill cutter and divide it into halves or fourths for my daily dosage)

“Primary” aging vs “Secondary” aging

Primary aging is your genetic maximum potential age.
Secondary aging is the aging due to disease, lifestyle and behaviors and so on

 

Several things are thought to contribute to aging; they may overlap and have shared functions:

mTOR vs AMPK
DNA telomeres
Oxidation damage
Hormonal status
Muscularity & other health factors
inflammation
metabolic rate

 

mTOR vs AMPK

Building up vs tearing down
Building muscle vs burning fat
Anabolic vs catabolic

mTOR stands for “mechanistic target of rapamycin”
AMPK stands for “adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase”

mTOR and AMPK are underlying, fundamental biological processes that occur during either growth or breakdown.

mTOR is a protein involved on the cellular level any time your tissues are building, growing, and repairing.  When consuming food and or engaging in exercise, whenever your body is building and repairing tissue, mTOR is at work.  This can mean the building of productive and helpful new tissue, such as neural tissue in the brain, connective tissue in the joints, and muscle tissue throughout the body.  However not all mTOR growth is beneficial; active mTOR can also mean increased fat cell growth, and even cancer cell growth.

AMPK is an enzyme involved in monitoring and maintaining cellular energy levels, and has a role in cellular cleanup, cellular autophagy, mobilizing and burning fat, and inhibiting cellular growth.  When you’re burning fat, AMPK is active.  When you’re tearing down harmful mutated cells, AMPK is active.  But AMPK can also inhibit and even break down muscle tissue.

So both processes can potentially enhance longevity… or diminish it.

mTOR is active when we rebuild necessary tissue.  It’s a prime mover in building new muscle tissue, and as discussed below, muscle tissue is crucial to healthy living and longevity.  But mTOR is also active when harmful damaged or mutated cells reproduce.

AMPK is directly tied to longevity due to its ability to tear down harmful cells, cells that could even turn into cancer.  But the ability of AMPK to limit or even reduce muscle tissue can hinder longevity.

The key then is to balance and properly and strategically engage mTOR and AMPK.  Which is to say, properly balance anabolism and growth, and also catabolism and breakdown.  You want to build up the good, tear down the bad.  “Advanced Concepts” and the “Body Recomp Plan” will address how.

mTOR or AMPK will be active during the other factors listed below…

 

Shortening of our DNA telomeres.

Telomeres are the chromosomal material at the ends of our individual DNA strands.  Every cell of the body contains DNA when it is created.  (some cells eventually remove their DNA as part of their normal maturation)  All of our physical (and perhaps some behavioral) traits are contained in our DNA.  DNA is essentially the ‘instructions’ telling the cell, tissue, and organ what to be and how to function.  DNA is constantly replicating itself within our bodies.  As we grow (and age) our DNA continues to replicate itself.  DNA replication is tied to physical growth and change.

Each time a cell divides and the DNA replicates, there is slightly less material on the end of the DNA strand.  In other words, each time a cell reproduces, it was triggered by DNA replicating itself.  And every time that DNA replicated itself, it lost a little bit of the telomere material on the ends of the DNA itself.  When the DNA strand runs out of telomere material, the cell dies.  It is thought that this process – the gradual loss of DNA telomere material – is a large part of aging.

It’s been shown that both exercise and high intensity cold thermogenesis can increase the hormone irisin.  (The Cool Fat Burner is currently undergoing a randomized group experiment at UCSD to confirm its ability to increase irisin levels on a randomized group)  Irisin has been shown to preserve telomere length.  Thus by increasing irisin, we might slow down one of the causes of aging.

 

Oxidative stress and resultant DNA damage.

Our bodies use oxygen as fuel.  We breathe it in and our cells burn it in chemical reactions throughout the cells of our body.  This process takes place in our mitochondria.

Mitochondria are in most human cells.  They are often called the ‘powerhouse’ of the cell, as they convert fuel into energy.  More specifically, they take oxygen and chemically convert it to supply fuel for the cell(s) in a process involving oxygen, glucose, fat, water, carbon dioxide, and “ATP.”  (ATP is the main energy molecule within mitochondria; pretty much all activity involves using ATP to get it done)  So by breathing and eating, we fuel the various cells of our bodies, and this chemical reaction/conversion takes place within our mitochondria.

However this process might contribute to aging.

When our mitochondria use oxygen, food, and water to produce energy, it carries out a chemical reaction involving the transport of electrons, called the “electron transport chain.”  During this process, electrons are moved from molecule to molecule, and the process yields energy. But sometimes one of these electrons can get ‘lost’ along the way, getting free from the electron transport chain.

This lone electron is called a “free radical,” has a negative charge, and will latch onto other atoms or molecules, allowing them to become chemically reactive.  These chemically reactive substances are called “reactive oxygen species” (ROS).  ROS can interact with tissues, altering their structure and causing damage.

If this damage is to the mitochondria, this may allow for even more electron leaking, more free radicals, more reactive oxygen species, and ultimately even more damage to occur.  So it forms a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

What’s more, if the damage is to DNA, since DNA is self-replicating, then that damage – altered genetic code – is reproduced and passed on throughout the cell.  This may be a large cause of not only aging, but disorders such as cancer.  (It’s also been shown that oxidative damage may be part of what shortens telomeres)

 

But here’s the thing:  this process is largely natural.  It’s supposed to happen.  It happens all the time throughout the trillions of cells in the body.  Our bodies are made to repair and heal the damage.  But under extreme conditions, it may happen too much, too often, or too chronically, and our bodies cannot heal all the damage.  This is where problems may arise.

 

An example is exercise.  Exercise increases oxidative stress.  It’s supposed to.  Many of the benefits of exercise comes from our body’s adaptations to oxidative stress.  In fact studies have shown that if subjects supplement with mega-doses of anti-oxidant vitamins, they have decreased improvements from exercise!  Megadoses of certain vitamins can stunt muscle growth.

Anti-oxidant vitamins neutralize free radicals.  Since there are less free-radicals, there is less stress and damage (in this case, to the muscles).  Since there is less stress and damage, there is less adaptation.  That means less muscles, less cardiovascular adaptation, less improvement.

As we’ll address below, having adequate musculature and cardiovascular health are imperative for optimal health and longevity.

It’s also thought that certain foods can increase oxidative stress.  Excessive exercise can too.  High intensity cold thermogenesis can increase hormones that reduce oxidative stress.

So a balancing act is needed.  Diet, activity, cold thermogenesis in such a way to get the ideal amount of oxidative stress; not too much or too little.  See the chapter “Advanced Concepts” for details.

 

Hormone status

Diet, exercise, and cold thermogenesis can all effect hormones in ways that can either enhance longevity or speed up aging.

Diet – especially carbohydrates — can increase blood glucose levels, which increase the body’s insulin response.  Chronically elevated insulin levels can increase oxidative stress.  Increased oxidative stress increases cell damage, it can lead to inflammation, and may be tied to most of the metabolic syndrome (diabetes, obesity, heart disease) as well as certain types of cancer and even dementia related disorders.

Exercise can increase natural growth hormone levels.  Growth hormone is directly related to the health and robustness of the body’s tissues.  Fasting and calorie restriction (or even just carbohydrate restriction) can also increase growth hormone levels.

Note:  we’re talking about natural growth hormone levels released via the pituitary in the brain as a response to exercise and occasional calorie or carbohydrate restriction; not externally prescribed growth hormone injected by a doctor, which may not have the same benefits as your own natural growth hormone.

Cold thermogenesis and exercise can not only increase insulin sensitivity, but can increase the hormones adiponectin and irisin.

Increased insulin sensitivity means you’ll have a properly responsive blood glucose and insulin system.  When you do eat carbs and they’re converted to glucose, your muscles and brown fat will suck up the glucose and properly use it.  It will not float around in your system, chronically elevated, leading to inflammation and disease.

As shown in the “Burn 2500 Calories in 1 Day” video, when in shape and cold-adapted, I’m able to eat massive amounts of food, including cakes, pies, and ice cream, yet my blood glucose levels doesn’t spike that high, then goes back to its normally super-healthy levels an hour or so later.

This is because I’m super insulin sensitive.  Enough muscle, enough brown fat, enough cold adaptation, and your body will suck up glucose.  Time it properly so as to refill empty muscle glycogen stores, and it is literally impossible for those carbs to store as fat during that meal.  Will go into more detail in “Advanced Concepts.”

 

Adiponectin is a hormone release from fat during high intensity cold thermogenesis, and probably during most types of exercise.

Adiponectin can reduce oxidative stress.  Thus it can directly and immediately allow cells to live longer.  Adiponectin can increase “mitochondrial biogenesis.”  Remember from above, the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.  But under the wrong conditions, it can create ‘reactive oxygen species’ that damage cells and can mutate DNA.  By increasing mitochondrial biogenesis, adiponectin can help make more mitochondria, make them more efficient, create more energy and less oxidative damage.

Adiponectin is also a powerful anti-inflammatory within the body, especially in regards to cardiovascular health.  In animal models with high blood pressure and diseased arteries are administered adiponectin, the arteries relax and inflammation is reduced almost immediately.  (One extreme example, it’s been shown that when someone has a heart attack, the body releases massive amounts of adiponectin as a desperate attempt to quell the damage)  Adiponectin is being researched for its role in treating everything from heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and diabetes.

Adiponectin also kills certain types of cancer cells, including breast and prostate cancer.

So it’s evident how adiponectin can increase longevity.  It’s even directly correlated to centarians.  (People who ‘naturally’ live longer have more neutrally high levels of adiponectin)

 

Irisin is a hormone released from muscle tissue during high intensity cold thermogenesis and exercise.  (Shivering increases irisin levels 4-5X faster than exercise)

Irisin can preserve DNA telomeres.  Irisin functions as a neuroprotectant.  Irisin can inhibit the protein molecule myostatin, which may allow one to maximize muscle growth.  So irisin can directly and indirectly enhance longevity.

 

Muscularity & related factors

Having a robust musculature is directly linked to increased longevity.  The benefits of exercise and proper musculature are almost too many to list, even just under the category of ‘longevity.’

Building muscle increases your insulin sensitivity and improves glucose metabolism.  That means less oxidative stress and less inflammation.  Resistance training lowers blood pressure and relaxes stiff arteries.  Resistance training lowers triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels, and raises good HDL levels.  Resistance training reduces risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  Higher levels of muscle correlate to longer lifespans.  Resistance training increases longevity of cancer survivors.  Muscle levels directly correlate to “organ reserve,” which is our organs’ ability to keep functioning properly, especially in old age.  Losing muscle with age (called “sarcopenia”) is correlated to mortality, even independent of obesity.

The general health benefits of exercise are too many to list.  If you’re not moving or working out in some way, you’re not living right.

 

Inflammation

Inflammation is behind the vast majority of modern disease, and directly leads to mortality.  So managing inflammation can directly increase longevity.

Inflammation starts as a normal immune response within your body.  The response is initially caused by some sort of problem, an irritant, a damaged cell, an infection, and so on.  Your body attempts to deal with this problem by inducing inflammation, which increases blood flow to the area, bringing in immune cells designed to fix the problem.

But when inflammation becomes chronic and systemic, it tends to function almost like an autoimmune response, where your own immune cells interact harmfully with your own tissues, and allows for many types of disease to occur.  It is thought that everything from heart disease to cancer to Alzheimer’s may be at least partially caused by inflammation.

So a diet and exercise and cold thermogenesis routine that reduces inflammation will directly enhance longevity if by only removing some of the most prominent modern diseases.

 

Metabolic rate and core temperature

Mice with lower core temps live longer.  It may apply to humans as well.

Metabolic rate and body core temperature may be related to aging as well.  Wearing the Cool Fat Burner can certainly help to lower core temperature, but for a time, it can increase metabolic rate.

 

Strategies for enhancing longevity

So some of the ways that the Cool Fat Burner, as well as diet and exercise might enhance and extend longevity is by helping one:

• Maintain or increase muscle mass
• Reduce subcutaneous and visceral fat
• Reduce systemic inflammation
• Be highly responsive to insulin
• Have low resting blood glucose levels
• Have an optimally functioning cardiovascular system
• Have negative-risk cholesterol levels
• Have optimized mitochondrial function
• Preserve telomere length
• Temporary therapeutic lowering of core temp
• Apoptosis autophagy of junk cells, cancer cells, etc
• Boosted immune system

 

How to do it – the balancing act:

Most of the things that enhance one aspect of longevity may counter another aspect.

The Cool Fat Burner may preserve telomere length, help burn off fat, and reduce systemic inflammation… but it does rev up the metabolism.  So does exercise.  But both exercise and the CFB can increase mitochondrial biogenesis.  Yet if one does too much of that type work, they could lose maximal muscle levels in favor of slower twitch muscles (see “Advanced Concepts” chapter).  Also excessive exercise can increase oxidative load.  So one needs to perform a balancing act at some times… and at others one needs to know what to do, and to what degree.

One could change their diet to go low to no carb and that would help (at least for the obese) with eventually reducing fat and lowering blood glucose levels… but this is also not optimal for muscle growth.  And what about those who workout, use the CFB, and already have good insulin sensitivity, thus can eat carbs without having prolonged elevated BGL?

One needs to work out and maximize muscle tissue, while reducing fat levels
One also needs plenty of metabolic and cardio-focused work
One therefore needs occasional starchy carbs, but in general, should keep carbs low and fibrous
One needs to do a significant amount of cold thermogenesis, at high intensity
One needs to ingest foods that promote healthy cholesterol levels
The closest system I’ve seen that incorporates all of this into one system is the “Metabolic” variant of the Body Recomp plan.  It layers exercise, diet, and cold thermogenesis (and supplementation) in such a way that most days you’re building muscle and working the cardiovascular system while in a deficit, you’re getting significant cold exposure, and only one meal per cycle do you have elevated insulin levels.  So there is less fat, less inflammation, increased mitochondrial biogenesis, yet, maximized muscle tissue and optimized (in regards to longevity) hormone status, all during periodic calorie restriction and occasional lowered core temps.

However the Metabolic variant is very demanding, and probably shouldn’t be done for more than 2-3 weeks at a time for fear of losing muscle mass and developing food cravings.

One can pull and use elements from the plan to suit their longevity goals.

Generally speaking, these are the things to aim for:

• Be in a caloric deficit from time to time
  • With no carbs
  • Maybe via fasting
• Exercise
  • With enough resistance to build or at least maintain muscle mass
  • With enough VO2 max to work the cardiovascular system
  • Not too much so as to cause excessive and chronic oxidative stress
  • Occasionally workout while fasted
• Cool Fat Burner
  • Daily sessions, long in duration, and high in intensity (at least near shivering)
  • Fasted sessions
• Supplementation
  • Melatonin at night to preserve circadian rhythms
• Fat burning vs Sugar burning
  • try to deplete glycogen and be “fat adapted” from time to time
  • combine low carb dieting, glyocogen burning workouts, and CFB use all to deplete glycogen and rely on fat as the primary fuel source
  • once in ketosis, you’re burning fat more so than glucose; experiment with lower intensity exercise and CFB sessions while in that state
  • maintain at least for a few days