Understand the burn fat and build muscle hormones - Part 1

The norm in the fitness world is to look at calories and metabolism for fat loss and muscle building. A vast majority of the experts don’t give much importance to hormones and their effects, mainly due to lack of knowledge. In this three part article, I will try to give an overview of the muscle building and fat burning hormones along with the how to manipulate them based on your fitness goals. Part 1 will talk about the three MAIN anabolic (tissue building) hormones. So here you go:

Testosterone is a male hormone mainly produced in the testicles. A small amount is also produced by the adrenal glands. In women, testosterone is produced in the ovaries and by the adrenal gland, although the amount is quite small as compared to the male production. The normal range in males is 350- 1200ng/dl and the range in females is less than 100ng/dl. Women often inject additional testosterone if they want to build muscles at the pro-level. Apart from being a MALE hormone, it is the number one anabolic hormone in the human body. In order to gain muscle mass, one should concentrate on boosting their testosterone levels which are usually the highest in the morning and if the right kind of workouts are done (anaerobic) then you can REALLY boost your testosterone levels post workout (they drop after a few hours). The higher the intensity, the greater the testosterone production. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone which suppresses testosterone

Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is another anabolic hormone, which is produced by the pituitary gland and stimulates the liver to produce IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor). HGH is also directly proportional to the exercise intensity similar to testosterone. It increases right after an intense workout and also during deep sleep. Insulin and cortisol both suppress the growth hormone. If you need benefits from the HGH and IGF-1 then you should try to keep insulin and cortisol quite low. The good thing about HGH is that you can burn fat and build muscle at the same time as one of the properties of this hormone is to breakdown fat (long story) and IGF help you grow.

Insulin is a storage (anabolic) hormone which is released by the pancreas in response to the food that you eat – mainly carbohydrates. If you get too many carbs in your system, the insulin levels rise to lower them and store them as fat for future use. That is just one part of it. If your body needs the carbs (i.e. post-workout), the insulin pushes the carbs to the muscles and also breaks down protein to help repair the muscles. Insulin spikes with high GI carbs and remains stable with low GI carbs so to avoid fat storage, one should try to stick to low GI throughout the day. Depending on your goal, you can choose what kind of carbs you need post workout.

Hope this was useful. Stay tuned, there is lots more to come.

Post workout meals to burn fat and build muscle – Finale

We have discussed 3 different types of post workout meals - One for muscle building and the others for increasing fat loss. These diets need to be incorporated with the right kind of exercises to get maximum results. I wanted to give you a few examples of all these types of the post workout meals so here goes:

Muscle Building

Whey protein powder with water and sugar
Hour later – Whole wheat chicken breast sandwich
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Double Banana smoothie (with yogurt)
Hour later – Chicken lasagna

Fat loss method 1

Whole wheat turkey salad sandwich
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Chicken steak with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables

Fat loss method 2

Egg whites
Hour to two hours later – Apple and orange smoothie with whey
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Whey protein shake with minimum carbs
Hour to two hours later – Grilled fish and vegetables

Now these are just examples to let you know what kind of things you should be looking for. You can find a great deal of information on the net about what foods are simple carbs, complex carbs, High and Low GI carbs etc.

Create your own meal plan based on what your aims are. Write down what you want to achieve and don’t compromise on it at any cost. Read the article – ‘Are all calories the same’ to get some understanding of the calories and then select accordingly.

I hope this was useful for you. People often don’t give importance to the post workout meals thinking that we will gain whatever we have just lost during the workout. It doesn’t work that way. Post workout meals are extremely important – Some experts call it the second most important meal of the day. So make sure you take the right kind of meal for your aims and goals otherwise all your hard work may go to complete waste.

Let me know what you thought about the post. If you need more information, please give me a shout :-).

Post workout meals to burn fat and build muscle - Part 2

In the previous post, I discussed the best post workout meal for building muscle. If you haven’t read it already, you can read it here. I did a lot of research on the best post workout meals to burn fat. There are just too many theories out there, but I finally read an article by Tom Venuto which stated that the best post workout meal for fat loss is just a normal meal with complex and natural carbs. I personally would say that one should take low GI carbs with protein and unsaturated fats. Here’s why.

After a fat loss workout – which should include full body workouts, you use up quite a bit of your muscle glycogen and you raise your metabolism due to the EPOC effect. Now your body needs the fuel. If you eat a normal meal as mentioned above, you will send the message to your body that you have some food coming, so don’t go to the muscle for fuel and don’t increase cortisol levels. Now, slowly and steadily the food that you have eaten will start getting absorbed and continue to get absorbed for quite some time. Because you are taking low GI carbs with proteins and unsaturated fats, you will slow down the absorption and during that time, a vast majority of the energy will come from the stored fats. This process will continue till such time that all the food has been absorbed.

Personally speaking this is a very good method to lose fat. Do keep in mind that you need to control the portion size. Don’t overdo it. However, you don’t get all the benefits from this method.

Once you do full body workouts or HIIT sessions, you get both the effects mentioned above i.e. using up of glycogen and raising the metabolism. But at the same time, it is known that if you work your entire body especially through HIIT, you increase your HGH (Human Growth Hormone) levels to amazing levels. The HGH is good for muscle building but at the same time, to is amazing for fat breakdown. The two peak timings of HGH are post workout and during deep sleep. If you eat carbs right after your workout, you stop the release of HGH. This is something you don’t want to do. The HGH forces your body to use fat as the primary source of energy instead of the carbs that have been taken and are in the blood stream. The best way to avoid lower your HGH is by:

- Taking only protein after a workout
- Taking in carbohydrates an hour or two after the workout (Low GI)
- Not taking any fats an hour before the workout

The above points will help you keep HGH raised after the workouts. Some people may say that you should take carbs after a workout an ANY COST. I disagree with that because our body is very smart. If you need fuel in your body and you don’t have carbs in your system or the carbs are very low, it will look for alternatives. We have processes like glycogenolysis, gloconeogenesis and lipolysis that increase the levels of carbohydrates or fuel in our system from fats and stored glycogen. If you do not have any stored glycogen, then most of it comes from fats. If you take in proteins, the body knows that you are not starving and will not increase cortisol (muscle breaking hormone). Basically, in very simple terms, you can breakdown fat and use it as energy and also provide some amounts of glycogen to the muscles. This will be particularly useful if you have quite a bit of fat.

I hope you didn’t fall asleep reading all that. I would recommend (personally) going with the second method as it includes the effects of the first method plus lots more. Stay tuned for some more details and meal examples.

Post workout meals to burn fat and build muscle - Part 1

There are a number of views about post workout meals like it is the most important meal of the day (after the breakfast), it needs to have lots of carbs, it needs to have lots of proteins and bla bla bla. There is so much information on the internet, that you never know what is right for you. I remember when I was doing my own research I found people basing there arguments on things like you should not eat too much protein because it will turn into carbs and you will get fat. I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read this. What I intend to do is give you some basic scientific facts about your what goal goes with which post workout meal so that you can make your own decision.

Ok…so our topic today is post workout meals to burn fat and builds muscle. The most common type of muscle building post workout meal is - high GI carbs followed by low GI carbs and high protein and no fats. The idea is - after a muscle building workout, you are completely drained of the muscle glycogen (carbs) which is the primary source of energy for your body and you need to repair the muscles as you have put stress on them during the workout and created microscopic muscle tears. If you take the high GI carbs right after a workout and then take the low GI carbs and protein, you get the following effects.

- You raise you blood sugar levels
- You raise insulin levels
- You get low GI carbs and protein in your system for muscle repair

The sugar will rush to the muscles, get used up and fill the glycogen pools, which means that you will store the carbs/glycogen in the muscles rather than as fats. There is a lot behind this as well, but I don’t want to bore you unless you ask me to :-). Insulin is an anabolic (cell building) hormone and also promotes muscle synthesis (muscle building) - it will use the protein that you have taken and push it to repair the muscle (i.e. build the muscle). The remaining low GI carbs will provide continuous energy to your body in order to get the muscle repaired and not feel lethargic. This is the most widely used approach for muscle building. The mix of high GI and low GI carbohydrates is used to provide your body with quick regeneration properties and also getting constant energy so that you don’t feel tired. There are a lot more details to this but you get the gist of it :-).

This method is excellent for muscle building, but is it good for fat loss? The insulin level tells your body, not to use any stored fat as the body has too many carbohydrates anyway, so the majority of the energy comes from carbohydrates. How will you lose fat using this method? The answer is that you can lose fat and weight using this method only if the meal is very small. Once the high GI carbs run to the muscles and there are no carbs in the blood stream, the body may get some energy from the fats. However, it is important to note that the insulin levels will be raised (to some extent) which will minimize the fat usage but nonetheless, some fat can be used. Once you take the low GI carbs and proteins, you will slow down the usage of fats even more. Basically, this method is not all that great for fat loss. There are other more effective methods for fat loss.

Stay tuned for the next post there I will discuss a post workout meal that can help you burn fat. I want to know what you guys think so, please don’t forget to leave comments. Till next time :-).

Low GI for fat loss and muscle building

There are a number of different kinds of carbs – simple, complex, fibrous, low GI, high GI etc. What do these mean? If you are not sure, please read my previous post here.

A number of articles are pointing out that LOW GI carbs are lean friendly. What does this exactly mean? Does it mean that carbs help us burn fat or do they helps us gain muscle mass?

In very simple terms, Low GI carbs are the carbs that get absorbed into our system very slowly and at a low rate. GI (glycemic index) determines how quickly a particular carbohydrate increases the blood sugar level. The lower the GI, the slower the rise in blood sugar levels. You may ask the question – Why do we need slow absorbing carbs? Well, basically when the carbs get absorbed very quickly, the amount of sugar is increased quite a lot. Your body tries to lower the carbs, as it doesn’t require that many carbs. The body releases a hormone called insulin which does three things:

- Lowers the carbs
- Stores them as fat
- Tells the body that ‘we already have too many carbs, don’t use the fats for energy’.

The above are not good for you. Insulin is very useful for you right after a workout (as you tend to use most of the carbs and the insulin helps you build muscle), it should not be spiked at any other time of the day. The LOW GI carbohydrates give your body constant energy at a steady rate so that you don’t get too many or too little carbs in your system and you avoid turning carbs into fats. But remember, if you take too much of any kind of carbs (even LOW GI), you increase the chances of converting them to fat.

Tom Venuto once wrote that it doesn’t matter whether individual items in a meal are low or high GI. You should make sure that the overall meal is low GI. E.g. potato on its own is high GI, but if you eat it with a chicken steak, it becomes low GI after mixing with proteins that gets absorbed at a very slow rate. Hope this makes sense.

If you stick to low GI for a fat loss program, you will minimize the chances of converting carbs to fat and also burn extra fat. If you want to build muscle – again, stick to low GI throughout the day, but take High GI with half an hour of a vigorous workout. I hope this has helped you understand what kind of carbs you should eat. Ohh, one more thing. Try not to take carbs after 6 – 7pm or keep them low in the evening/night. This again may increase chances of your storing carbs as fats over night because your metabolic rate slows down at night and if you don’t use up the carbs (or any other macro-nutrient), it will convert to fat.

Right!! I think that’s all for today…stay tuned. I will shortly start posting some workout routines and also a HOW TO guide. See ya!!

The Burn ‘n’ Build Phenomenon

You must have heard in a number of places that you cannot burn fat and build muscle at the very same time. This is supported by one main argument that you need to increase calories to build muscle and decrease to burn fat or lose weight. I don't want to go into details at the moment but I will be posting a detailed article very soon. Any how, the main concept used for this technique is alternating between muscle building and fat burning routines.

This way you can get the best of both worlds. There are a lot more details that need to be considered in order to develop a program that you can run with, but as mentioned the main idea is to just from one to the other. One way is to do muscle building workouts one week with high calories, high carbohydrates and proteins and avoiding cardio (HIIT can be done once or twice a week), then the very next week lower you carbohydrates, increase HIIT and full body strength work out. You will preserve muscle and burn fat one week and build muscle the next. It's quite simple. You can find more details in the FREE 10 week Burn 'n' Build program. I will be posting a number of workout routines, how make a workout plan, best times to do different workouts and lots lots more, so stay tuned. I will be starting my diet and workout routine from tomorrow, so keep an eye out for hints, tips and my progress. Please feel free to leave any comments. Till next time - Stay fit.