I just recently found out about it… and I already ordered a bottle.
It’s called Palatinose. The chemical name is Isomaltulose. Palatinose is actually as close as it can get chemically to table sugar - sucrose. The only difference chemically is a little tweak with the bond between glucose and fructose - the two molecules that comprise sucrose… and Palatinose.
Here is why Palatinose is the perfect post-workout carbohydrate…
As starters Palatinose has the same amount of calories as any other carbohydrate - 4 Cal. The most significant property that Palatinose has, however, is the fact that compared to glucose and sucrose it has a very low glycemic index (GI)- only 32. For example the GI of old-fashioned oats could be anywhere from 52 to 75. So, in essence Palatinose does NOT cause sudden raise in blood sugar and insulin.
And I’m sure you know that insulin is the main factor that could immediately put a stop on any efforts at fat loss..
More properties…
Palatinose does not ferment in the mouth, thus it does not cause tooth decay. It is stable at high temperatures, which makes it perfect for baking or cooking. It is also almost as sweet as table sugar - the perfect nutritive, low GI table sweetener.
That’s not all…
A couple other things you should know about Palatinose - it dissolves quickly and completely in liquid, and it does not cause stomach discomfort, due to the fact that it, just like table sugar, is digested completely.
So, what do you think? I think Palatinose is perfect for a post-workout carbohydrate, especially for those, who want to lose fat or maintain. Of course there will always be those, who seek the insulin spike provoking properties of fast carbs like glucose and maltodextrin for example. I am not one of those. I’d rather stay lean… and still feed my body carbs when it needs them - right after a workout is essential.
The beneficial properties of Palatinose in a bullet point format:
- Low glycemic index (GI) - 32
- It doesn’t cause tooth decay - doesn’t ferment
- Doesn’t provoke sudden insulin spike
- No gastrointestinal discomfort
- Heat stable - could be used for cooking
- No aftertaste
- Almost as sweet as table sugar
- Fully digestible - it provides the same amount of calories as table sugar or other carbohydrates
Interested in trying it? Get it from the store I get it from.
I was just reading an article about the damages in the muscle during an eccentric muscle contraction compared to concentric contraction. I’ve known for a long time that eccentric contractions cause a lot greater micro damages in the working muscle.
I also knew why that happens - because during the eccentric (negative) phase of the rep the weight is pulling in the opposite direction of the contraction or shortening of the muscle fiber. What I didn’t know is how to explain it more scientifically.
It sounds like this: during the concentric (the positive) phase of the rep the force decreases while the speed increases. In the case of the eccentric contraction (the negative part of the rep) the force increases while the speed increases. In other words the faster you move the weight during the eccentric (negative) part of the rep the more muscle damage you cause - that is more of the contracting filaments get micro damaged.
Later on when the body goes on to repair the damaged parts of the muscle fiber, a positive adaptation occurs - the body re-builds the damaged parts of the muscle cell, making them stronger by increasing the number of contracting filaments. That’s how we grow.
Spending so many hours a week as an employee at the Vitamin Shoppe oftentimes gives me the time to read and research supplements and supplement ingredients.
The other day, following the request of a customer, I read about Acai - the popular drink with high antioxidant properties. I read something that made me continue my research about acai later on at home.
I’ve always enjoyed a huge mixed veggie salad. Even more when there are hearts of palm in it. Well, I just found out that one of the most common sources of hearts of palm (or palm hearts) is the acai palm trunk’s core.
I also found out that harvesting heats of palm has quickly and significantly decreased the population of this palm. Reading more on the internet revealed this: 1) Nowadays cultivating the acai palm for its fruit and juice is a lot more profitable business than killing it for the core of the trunk, known as hearts of palm; 2) There is another palm tree, which has been artificially cultivated especially for the harvesting of palm hearts.
Still, not knowing where the heats of palm are coming from is what worries me some. Being the eco conscious person that I am, I wouldn’t want to think of myself, even for a minute, as of a person, who contributes to the destruction, rather than the restoration of the earth’s eco systems.
So, next time I decide to enjoy a salad I will certainly make sure to find out how the common delicates was derived. If this is not possible, I will order a salad with no hearts of palm.
In case you don’t know about acai - it is one of the few fruits with extremely high ORAC value. ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity. It is a fruit (and fruit juice) with what we know more as very, very high antioxidant properties.
British researchers found that boiling cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower) destroys the glucosinolates, contained in them. In the body glucosinolates are converted to isothiocyanates - fighting compounds.
Their study showed that stir-frying, microwaving for up to 3 min or steaming for up to 20 min didn’t show significant reduction in the amount of glucosinolates.
So, if you are concerned about containing the health important nutrients in your veggies, make sure you avoid boiling as a method of cooking.
I was reading recently my fitness magazine and a stumbled upon a little not, mentioning several websites, each of them providing some type of cool service for active people, who travel a lot.
One of them was the google’s gmap pedometer.
I have to admit that it took me a few minutes to figure out how to work with this cool free tool. I had to go to the author’s notes in the forums, related to the gmap pedometer.
I played with it for a while and really came to love it. So, I decided to put together a little video tutorial, explaining how to work with the pedometer.
Basically the gmap pedometer is a tool, based on Google’s regular or satelite maps, which allows you to build a running route anywhere in the US, as well as in several other coutriens.
It is very convenient if you want to know exactly how long is your running route, also how many calories approximately you burn running this route. It is extremely convenient for active individuals, who travel a lot. It let’s them find a route for jogging before their trip has even started!
Like I said, this tool is really, really cool. Go ahead and click on the Play button to watch the video. Wait a few seconds for the video to begin…
One of my members asked about Russian Lunges the other day. He said he’s been doing forward and reverse (backward) lunges, but he didn’t know what Russian lunges are and how to do them.
So, I thought I’d post here quiclkly a short description if you happen to wonder the same thing (I’d much rather talk about Bulgarian (split) squats since I am Bulgarian, but… hey in the name of the sport of bodybuilding…).
Russian lunge execution:
Step with one of your legs about 3 feet in front of the other. Lower your body like in normal lunge. Rapidly push yourself up until both of your legs are in the air. Quickly switch legs so that when you land the opposite leg is in front of the leg you started with. Repeat.
Oh, well, Bulgarian explaining Russian lunges… I really hope I make sense.. If not, I count on your imagination.
I remember about 7 - 8 years ago I used to train in the evening and there was nothing that could make me change my habit. That’s what I thought…
I don’t remember exactly but it must have been an evening job that made me re-train myself and start training early in the morning. I recall it wasn’t easy in the beginning, and I’m sure many who have tried morning training will agree.
But once you get accustomed to morning training you start to wonder what in the world made you think that morning workouts are difficult. Especially if you consider the added benefit of clearing up your evening from having to spend time in the gym and not with friends or family, or even doing whatever your favorite thing to do is at the moment.
Now ocassionally I still have to train late in the evening.. and I have to tell you training in the evening gives me a lot better pumps, and I feel stronger. Not to mention that I’m not half asleep.
But the habit of training in the morning still makes me head for the door as soon as I wake up without too much thinking. After all that’s why we call it a habit..
I guess my point is if it weren’t for the habit and for the fact that I like to have my evenings free, I’d still train late at night as this is the time when I feel primed to hit the weights really hard.
And to prove my point I just read about a study from the University if South Carolina. In this study the researchers examined how swimmers perform in their training at 18 different times during the day for the length of 3 days. They found that the athletes’ bodies were primed for peak performance at 11 pm.
The researchers concluded that this has something to do with the circadian rhythms - all your physiological processes in a 24h period.
Any way, fact is training at night means better performance if you don’t mind not leaving time for other things to do and people to spend time at night.
What is your take on that? Have you tried early morning training and late evening training? Which one do you find to be better, based on your personal experience?
Knowing your body fat percentage helps you in a lot of aspects. Most importantly that’s how you find out to which group you belong - lean, average, overweight or obese.
It helps you craft a more precise daily calorie intake, so that for example if you fall in the category of average people, but you want to move into the upper category - lean, you can determine exactly how much calories you need in order to start losing fat, while still keeping your muscle mass.
That’s all good, but… how do you find your body fat percentage?
Even I, when talking about measuring body fat, have suggested that you ask a fitness trainer at your local gym to help you out. Some times that’s an option, but some times it’s not. After all you may not want to let others know this personal bit of information.
And then there are all the other methods like skin fold body fat testing (in fact that’s the most likely method a fitness trainer would use, a.k.a. pinch test), DEXA scan (dual energy X-ray), Hydrostatic body fat testing, Bioelectrical impedance (TANITA scales, etc.) and on and on…
The thing is all these require either equipment or assistance from someone else, or even both.
But how do you find your body fat percentage alone from the comfort of your home.
Well, there is a method. It’s not the most accurate out there, but if you consistently use it, it will tell you if you are moving up, maintaining or you are losing fat. But most importantly it’s easy to do, you don’t need anyone else, and it takes not more than a minute.
To calculate your body fat percentage this way you will only need a tape measure. If you are a male you will have to take 2 measurements, if you are a female you will have to take 5.
Now, before we continue I want to mention that you will not have to do the calculations manually. I have already created calculators that will help with that, but just for your information immediately below you will find a table with the numbers that the calculators actually use:
I can’t believe how often people try to find answers to this question and how there is no info on how long it takes for someone, who trains to see results.
I will do my best to give you some answers, but first we have to make an important distinction
- Are you trying to build muscle mass and you want to know how long it takes
or
- Are you trying to lose fat and want to know how long before you see your dream body in the mirror?
If you are on a quest to build more muscle, feel free to use my theory for the most you can add in one day. From there you can easily determine how long before you put on the 10, 20 or whatever number of pounds it might be.
Here it goes. You know that in order to gain muscle you have to eat more protein than your body uses up and excretes. This is called a positive nitrogen balance. It is known that 1 gram of protein per pound of lean muscle mass is what you need to be in a neutral nitrogen balance, meaning as much goes in, as much goes out.
My ideal number of protein surplus is about 1.35 grams, meaning you have to eat about that much grams of protein per pound lean muscle mass a day, in order to be in a positive nitrogen balance.
So, for example, if you weight 200 LB at 10% body fat that means that your lean body mass is 180 LB (200 x 0.9). Multiply your lean body mass by 1.35 and you will get your desired protein intake. In our case it’s 243 gr a day. If you remember from above just to maintain your muscles you need 1 gram of protein a day, so that is 180 grams.
Here is where it gets interesting. If you subtract the smaller number from the bigger, you will get exactly the amount of protein you have to eat in surplus just to be in a state that predisposes to muscle growth. In our study that is exactly 63 grams.
So, in theory you could grow with 63 grams a day or with almost a pound a week. In reality you never use up all these amino acids from the extra 63 grams of protein to build muscle. You use some of them for energy, you use some of them to offset the catabolic processes in the body.
But, on the other hand when you build new muscle, it’s not only due to protein increase, but also due to glycogen (carbs) storage, water, etc.
I would expect that, if all other conditions are right, a half of these 63 grams will be turned into new muscle each day. So, I’d say aim for not more than a half a pound a week or at most two pounds a month.
Enough about what to expect when building muscle. What should you expect when on a quest for fat loss?
That’s somewhat easier. You know that in order to lose fat you should eat about 20% less calories than what you burn during the day (workout and cardio included).
We know that if you are careful to be 20% calorie deficient, you will be effectively losing about 0.5% body fat each week.
So, again, if you are 200 LB at 0.5% fat loss a week, you will be losing about 1 pound each week. If your goal is to lose 20 LB that means it’s going to take you roughly two and a half months.
I hope that now you have a better understanding about what to expect before you embark on a mission - either muscle gain or fat loss. Just replace the numbers from our examples above with your numbers.
You know, I never asked myself this question before. I’ve always known that oils don’t have fiber at all. But then I also know that flax seed is one of the best sources of fiber that a person can find out there…
So, I had to check to see if there is any fiber in flax seed oil… And guess what, there actually is. One tablespoon of flax seed oil contains 1 gr of fiber.
Now, it’s a whole another story if you should rely on flax oil to supply your diet with fiber. Obviously you should not. What you should do is add fiber from ground flax seed, also fiber from fruit and veggies. The minimum should be about 35 gr a day. If you ask me.. double that. 35 gr is nothing to keep you colon healthy. I personally take a lot more than that.
