Mark Sisson's Blog, page 174

I’m a Lean and Mean Endurance Machine!

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

So, a little bit about my background: I am a 44-year-old former Marine, who worked as a police officer in Buffalo, NY for about twelve years. During that time, I obtained my B.S. in Criminal Justice, and then my law degree, all while working full-time. I entered the practice of law in 2005, and I’m still plugging away.

I initially became interested in weight lifting/body building when I was a Marine and police officer, but that all took a back seat during law school, due to working full-time. I was in the worst shape of my life during this period, and really didn’t get back into gear until about 2009, when I started running.

In 2010, I did my first half marathon, and then in 2013 my first full marathon. I entered the world of triathlon in 2014, and I’ve never looked back. I often tell people, that if running were equated to cocaine, then triathlon would be crack! Sorry, police humor, I guess! I did my first half-iron in 2014, full distance IMs in Muskoka (2015) and Boulder (2016); with many half irons, olympic and sprint distance races scattered throughout.

I found MDA/PB through Primal Endurance; which I picked up as an audiobook last September for a business trip. I originally grabbed it because I’m always interested in new training methods and techniques. Little did I know, it would change my life in such profound ways. At first, the diet stuff sounded far-fetched; eat lots of fat to get skinny—right!!! However, the more I listened, the more it made sense. I am a big believer in evolutionary adaptations as it relates to biological attributes (i.e. “Born to Run”—our evolution as hunter gatherers). So, the idea that the diets of our ancient ancestors certainly did not contain the crap found in the vast majority of the SAD diet today makes complete sense.

The other thing that really caught my attention was the Primal Endurance declaration: “Why do so many endurance athletes have excess body fat?!” Yes—why??!! I trained my tail off between 2015 and 2016 for back-to-back Ironman races, and yet raced both events at 167lbs (off season I was usually about 175lbs). By the way, 167lbs was the lowest I had ever been since before I graduated from high school; and before Primal Endurance. When I finished the book, I made a promise to commit to the PB/PE diet and training right after Thanksgiving weekend (for obvious reasons).

Fast forward to the present. I am a 150lb lean and mean endurance machine. I’ve already set a new bike PR twice at the half-iron distance, and have my eyes on a new half marathon PR and half iron total PR this fall. I broke a toe a few weeks ago, so I haven’t been able to really see the results of my training in the run. I can say my overall pace per mile at heart rate has dropped significantly since last fall, so I am optimistic.

Most importantly though, is that I feel amazing; both mentally and physically. I feel light on my feet, and mentally sharp (kind of important in my line of work!), and I don’t have those old post-lunch sugar crashes, where I want to crawl under my desk and take a nap. I owe it all to Primal Blueprint and Primal Endurance! I’ve attached two pictures as demonstrative evidence; the first is from last December (about 178lbs), and the second was taken back in May (about 152lbs). Wow!

Mark, thank you so much for this gift of lifestyle and fitness. I have spread the word through my triathlon club, and “converted” a few people already.

For anyone reading this that may be on the fence: Take that first step and change your life! It may not be easy, but you have everything to lose (weight & poor health), and everything to gain (good health & endurance)! Isn’t that worth it?

Sincerely, Keith Vona

The post I’m a Lean and Mean Endurance Machine! appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

The Inaugural Primal Health Coach Masterclass: A Weekend to Remember

I’m a little nervous.

For whatever reason, I always get the jitters before hosting people at my house. Usually it’s for a dinner party or birthday celebration or something similar and more intimate, with close friends. People who aren’t expecting anything out of you except good food and good conversation in other words.

Today’s different.

Today, I’m hosting a group of students and graduates of the Primal Health Coach certification program. These are people who have devoted their time, money, and energy to gain a deep understanding of the Primal Blueprint concepts and to learn how to become effective and successful health coaches.

These are folks who have joined me in my mission to create a global network of coaches to transform the health and wellness of communities around the world using ancestral health principles.

And now, they’re making an even bigger commitment: to the Primal Health Coach Masterclass—a weekend retreat designed to help Primal Health Coach students and graduates break through any barriers they may have and push forward to create the career of their dreams.

As soon as the attendees begin arriving, the jitters melt away. These are my people. They’re here to learn how to translate their passion for Primal living into business and clients, and my team and I are here to show them.

Said team includes:

Christine Hassler, coaching director of the Primal Health Coach program. Christine has spent the last couple decades writing books, giving talks, running retreats, and coaching lives. She’s a coaches’ coach.

Erin Power, head of student/grad support. Erin has 20 years of experience working in marketing, fitness marketing, and fitness coaching. She hits all the bases.

Laura Rupsis, head of admissions and co-owner of Absolution CrossFit in LaGrange, Illinois. She left a lucrative 20-year career in the financial sector to pursue her passion: helping people get strong, fit, and healthy.

Jill Esplin, leader in the personal growth industry and spiritual psychologist.

They’re a formidable bunch.

The day kicks off with a keynote address from yours truly and Christine. We talk about the mindset necessary to be an entrepreneur, the hard work, the pain, and the payoff.

The biggest hurdle for any business owner, coach, trainer, or really anyone offering a piece of themselves up in service of others is how to ask for money. It trips everyone up. Even I get a little trepidatious when I’m about to offer a new product, book, or service. Everyone has that “Am I really worth it?” moment. The brief bout of imposter syndrome that, I think, is a healthy, necessary, and—let’s admit it—unavoidable occurrence in the life of any entrepreneur.

But you have to move past it. And right here, right now, I’m watching 32 people making that leap in real time. Thirty-two people realizing that they aren’t just good enough—they’re better. They understand the material. They hold in their heads the keys to help the people around them achieve better health. It’s a powerful thing, that moment when you understand and accept your power and competency. Feels good.

Like all good events, this one is a great mix of scheduled events and spontaneous interactions. I give my keynote. We have a session on sales tactics, a Q&A with all the coaches, a class on marketing techniques. A constant theme is balancing the passion with the drive to realize that passion and make it a sustainable business. Pairing the dream to reality. The lofty ideals to the mundane day-to-day demands. Nearly every attendee came loaded with the former and seeking clarity on the latter.

Outside the scheduled sessions it’s a whirlwind of energy, a release valve for the flood of information welling up during the talks. You get snippets of conversation so interesting you strain to hear it all. Breakout sessions erupt all around as attendees get together to hash out ideas, schemes, concepts. I’m pulled into one, tell a story about my first client, give some pointers about sales tactics, brainstorm a bit. If you’ve ever read On the Road or any of the other Beat writers’ works, the weekend was full of that same kind of exuberant excitement about life and ideas and dreams. Only instead of whisky and cheap jug wine, we had bottled water and ketones. And instead of rambling monologues, they’re speaking concrete plans of action.

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The catered lunches and dinner are fantastic. I always like seeing Primal people realize they’re no longer the weird ones at the dinner table.

The final group session is the most powerful. Everything comes to a head, and attendees are mapping their future. Planning the next few moves in concrete terms. It’s real. I see it dawning on their faces. It’s actually happening, provided they just take that next step. Will they? I think so.

Closing ceremonies fast approaching. I’m tearing up a bit on the inside. Maybe outside, too. Whatever. I can’t help it. For me, this is the culmination of something I’ve been dreaming about for a decade: building a team of Primal ambassadors to spread the good word. I’m a big proponent of grass-roots action. I recoil from top-down central planning. So, instead of having the authorities mandate a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, and a great diet, you give them the tools to figure it out themselves. People don’t respond well to authority. They rebel. They do the opposite of what the authority recommends. And then it gets ugly and counterproductive.

But people respond well to other people meeting them as individuals, granting them the dignity inherent to each of us. You won’t listen to some stuffy government official telling you what to eat, but you will listen to your best friend, your co-worker, your coach. It’s what I’ve always envisioned as the next step forward for this movement, and it’s actually happening. Doesn’t hurt that people are starting businesses and figuring out how to turn profits based on this stuff. In fact, it makes it even better. It makes the movement sustainable and self-perpetuating. Organic, rather than propped up.

The weekend is ending. Hugs and handshakes and back claps everywhere. The folks are filing out. I’m exhausted, but in a good way—how you feel after a long hike. Physically tired, mentally energized. I guess that’s what happens when you spend an entire weekend in a swarm of intelligent, creative, passionate individuals and their ideas, visions, and dreams.

Magic probably isn’t real, but this is about as close as it gets.

We’ll definitely be holding more of these Masterclasses. It was a lot of fun, it was helpful to our attendees, and, selfishly, I found it far more rewarding than I expected. If you want to stay apprised of our plans, or want more information about becoming a Primal Health Coach yourself, head on over here and give it a shot!

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Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

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The Definitive Guide to Bone Broth Benefits

I’ve been writing about bone broth for a long time. I’ve been drinking it even longer. I’m not sure you can get anything much more primal than a heap of bones cooked for hours into rich, gelatinous glory. Ritual and taste aside, however, I count quality bone broth as an important supplemental food. The copious health benefits are simply too substantial to pass up.

Some of you, I know, are bone broth fans—a few even connoisseurs. You’ve been making your own for decades, maybe with recipes you learned in your grandparents’ kitchen. But what does the average Primal type need to know about bone broth? What goes into making it? What are the distinct health advantages? Are there risks or downsides? What are the alternatives? Finally, what about some recipes? I’m glad you asked….

What is Bone Broth?

Bone broth is simply a broth made by boiling bones (often with meat still on them). Usually vinegar is added as a medium (the thought is to draw out nutrients—more on this later). Sometimes vegetables, herbs, and spices are added for additional flavor and nutrients. Whereas soup is a meal, often containing vegetables, grains, seasonings, and even beans, bone broth stands on its own and is usually more cooked than soup.

Bone broth is an ingredient than can be used to create or flavor all kinds of dishes. It contains parts of the animal we typically like to discard (like cartilage and bone marrow), all nicely broken down so we get the full dose of nutrients.

What You Need to Know about Collagen

Inside the matrix of bones, there are many proteins including collagen, which forms the inside fibrous part of the bone.

Collagen is a group of amino acids making up 25-35% of our body. It’s found in our bones, skin, joints, tendons, and ligaments. As we age, we lose collagen. This contributes to age-related joint issues, not to mention the loss of skin elasticity.

Type I is found in bone, skin, ligaments, tendons and the white of the eye, and makes up 90% of the collagen in the body. Type II is found in the cartilage. Type III is found in bone marrow and lymph, also known as reticulin fiber.

Why Is Collagen So Important?

Glycine is the primary amino acid found in collagen. And it’s a pretty significant amino acid in terms of what it does for the body. Glycine is a non-essential amino acid, meaning our body can synthesize it. However, it’s actually considered “conditionally essential,” as it’s synthesized from the amino acid serine at only about 3 grams per day—not nearly enough for our requirements.

The human body requires at least 10 grams per day for basic metabolic processes, so we have a pretty significant daily deficit that we need to get through dietary or supplement means. Most of us these days aren’t eating ligaments and tendons and rougher cuts of meat containing glycine.

Bone broth contains approximately 27.2 grams of glycine per 100 grams of protein. Therefore, it makes for a great source of this amino acid. Rather than taking an isolated glycine supplement, bone broth contains glycine with other amino acids and minerals, which act synergistically with each other. Here are a few of the benefits glycine offers….

Bone Broth Offers Gut Healing Properties

Glycine improves our digestive health, through inhibiting cytokines, thus decreasing inflammation in the gut lining. Glycine helps with sealing the mucosal layer in the intestines. It aids in liver detoxification, and helps with fructose malabsorption.

It Improves Joint Health

Contrary to what you might have heard, these non-essential proteins are pretty darn useful. A study was done on a hundred women between the ages of 40 and 70 who presented with knee joint pain or discomfort. (PDF) The results suggested that collagen increases the proteoglycan content in knee cartilage after 6 months of treatment. We need at least 10 grams of glycine each day for basic metabolic processes. One of those processes is the maintenance of the collagen in our body (the most abundant protein we carry, in fact).

Collagen concentrates where joints meet and in the connective tissue binding us together. Those 10 grams of glycine is just for maintenance, not repairing tissue after injury, or recovery from intense lifting. If you lift heavy, or are recovering from any sort of joint damage, supplementary collagen will improve your recovery.

It Can Help Keep Skin Supple

Research suggests collagen may act as a biological messenger, triggering the synthesis of new collagen fibers and extracellular matrix recognition by stimulating fibroblasts.

It Restores Glutathione

Glutathione protects against oxidative stress, and helps decrease the impact of bad estrogens that can build up over time, compromising our hormonal health.

It May Improve Cognition

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors play a significant role in learning and memory. Targeting the glycine modulatory site of the NMDA receptor has been suggested as a therapeutic strategy to improve cognition. Glycine is considered an “inhibitory neurotransmitter,” and can act in the brain similarly to an antidepressant, without all the side effects.

It Can Improve Sleep Quality

It does this by decreasing core body temperature and increasing cutaneous blood flow. Cooler body temp means deeper sleep. One of my go-to “sleep hacks” is a big mug of bone broth about an hour before bed. It always knocks me out (in a good, non-narcotic way). And according to research, I’m not making this up or suffering from placebo. Human studies show that 3 grams of glycine taken before bed increases the quality of your sleep and reduces daytime sleepiness following sleep restriction. Sipping bone broth before bed provides a bioavailable source of glycine, helping us achieve deeper, more restorative sleep at night.

Other Key Nutrients in Bone Broth
Cartilage: the Home of Chondroitin and Glucosamine

When is the last time you felt the urge to chew on a juicy piece of cartilage? Probably not so much. We tend to discard those parts of the animal containing cartilage like the nose, ears, and joints. However, joint cartilage is easily broken down in well-cooked bone broth. Cartilage contains collagen protein and elastin. Elastin fibers play a big role in maintaining the integrity, elasticity, and the mechanical properties of cartilage.

Cartilage also contains glucosamine and chondroitin, both well known supplements for arthritic pain, particularly in the knees. In this study, glucosamine–chondroitin combined resulted in a statistically significant reduction in joint space narrowing at two years. Seeing as how those supplements get the chondroitin sulfate directly from animal cartilage, why not just eat the cartilage, or a bone broth made with plenty of cartilaginous substrate? Be sure to use bones with joints, like chicken feet and beef knuckles. Chicken backs are also a great source of chondroitin and glucosamine.

Bone Marrow: Deep in the Inner Matrix of the Bone

Bone marrow, found deep in the center of the bone, is also worth noting. There are two types: red bone marrow and yellow bone marrow. Yellow bone marrow is higher in fat cells, whereas red bone marrow is higher in platelets. Red bone marrow contains reticulin fibers, or type III collagen. Chicken bones have higher red marrow and make for a more flavorful broth. Bone marrow is fatty and gelatinous, and the marrow contains most of the minerals. Cooking bones longer (24-36 hours) will yield more of those minerals into the broth.

Bone Marrow Fat Is More Than Just Fat

A University of Michigan-led study shows that the fat tissue in bone marrow is a significant source of a hormone called adiponectin. These researchers discovered that the adiponectin in bone marrow helps with insulin sensitivity, and has been linked to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity-associated cancers.

Hyaluronic Acid: slippery synovial lubricant

Sure you can get powdered gelatins, but these do not contain many of the valuable nutrients that work synergistically with gelatin, such as hyaluronic acid. Found in many high end beauty serums, hyaluronic acid is the main component in synovial fluid, acting as a joint lubricant. You can also find hyaluronic acid in the bones and the connective tissue (usually attached to the bones). This study compared hyaluronic acid with NSAIDs for knee osteoarthritis. Both worked about the same, but hyaluronic acid is a safer alternative.

Proline: another noteworthy amino acid in bone broth

Let’s not ignore proline. Proline forms the structure of collagen, and like glycine, is a “conditionally essential” amino acid that we can get through our diet. To the point, it’s found in bone broth. Proline is needed to build collagen, to increase collagen synthesis in human fibroblast cells. As a result, it’s an important amino acid for skin health. Proline is great for healing, especially after intense workouts or straining the body. Animal studies suggest that proline helps with skin wound healing. People recovering from injuries have a higher need for proline. And don’t forget, heavy lifting is a stress to the body that requires recovery.

What about Minerals?

Bone broth can be high in minerals such as calcium and magnesium—with one caveat.

Recent research showed that bones cooked for more than eight hours were found not to exceed low tenths of a milligram per serving, or Another study highlighted veal bones sliced open to expose the marrow, placed in water with vinegar (more on vinegar later), and boiled for nine hours. The mineral loss from bones into the broth was extremely low—just a few milligrams of calcium and magnesium.

Keep in mind that longer cooking times (24-36 hours), where the meat falls of the bone and the bone really breaks down, tend to yield different results. It takes a long time for bones to break down and to get those interior nutrients. The marrow contains most of the minerals. Therefore, I probably wouldn’t rely on bone broth as a primary source of minerals if cooking under 24 hours, but with a longer cooking time I’d expect decent mineral content.

Are There Any Negatives to Bone Broth?

I’ve discussed many of the nutrients and positive benefits of bone broth, now let’s dive into some potential drawbacks. One concern often brought to my attention is the potential level of heavy metals found in bone broth. Some research says to avoid it because of markedly high lead concentrations, while other research suggests that the risks associated with the ingestion of heavy metals such as Pb and Cd in broth are minimal, since levels were extremely low.

I’m not too worried. That second study had several limitations, which the Weston A. Price Foundation has covered pretty well. The focus should be on sourcing of the bones. What matters is how much lead the animals you’re using to make broth are exposed to throughout their lives. I’d like to see a comparison between chicken broths made from animals from different farms and environments.

The animals’ environments and upbringing are everything. Weston Price describes a follow-up study into two broths made from grass-fed beef bones and pasture-raised chicken bones that was unable to detect any lead in either. This despite the chickens having plenty of access to dirt and all the same dirt-dusting proclivities their kind is known for.

Another concern I often hear about is the glutamate content. Bone broth that cooks for over 48 hours releases more glutamate, which raises concerns for people with neurological issues such as autism, ADHD, and multiple sclerosis. The theory is that excess free glutamate found in long cooked broths may cross the blood brain barrier (for those with “leaky brain”) and may be harmful for these particular folks.

Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter and is naturally high in some nutritious foods such as bone broth, soups, and even sauerkraut. This doesn’t condemn the food and make it toxic. Most of us can process it just fine. Glutamate is only an issue if the person is highly sensitive to it. If you’re sensitive to glutamate or have a neurological condition of some kind, you may need to start with shorter cooking times, and gradually building up to see what you can handle. Keep in mind that there are many other foods we consume that are much higher in glutamate than bone broth. In my opinion the health benefits far outreach glutamate concerns for most people.

Beyond these suggestions, downsides you might hear include the taste and convenience. Oftentimes, when people tell me they just can’t stomach bone broth, I’m skeptical of what they’ve tried in the past. Recipe makes a big difference (as with any food). Let’s just say I’ve been able to change quite a few people’s minds with the good stuff. That said, others never quite get over the aversion. It’s just to their thing.

Likewise, it is a time commitment to make your own. It’s not hard. In fact,  I dare say a basic bone broth is one of the simplest things you can cook. You just need time, which I know isn’t always practical. Carrying it around isn’t always easiest either. But the benefits of collagen are frankly too good for your health to pass up.

(Of course, that’s why I created Collagen Fuel and Collagen Bars—because I wanted an alternative for myself and others who desire a more convenient collagen source at times.)

But now let’s get down to the real business….

How to Make an Awesome Bone Broth
Add Vinegar to My Broth? Yes or No?

I used to religiously add a big glug or two of vinegar to every batch of broth, but not anymore. I’ve never actually noticed a difference. The reason being is that the broth would need to be much more acidic to draw out the minerals. A splash of vinegar doesn’t really work, and you don’t want your broth to be pure vinegar. Another option I’ve discussed before is to simmer the bones in red wine first, then add water, or to smash the bones in vinegar before cooking, increasing the surface area exposed to cooking. Both of those methods can draw out more minerals.

Which Bones Will Give Me the Richest, Most Gelatinous Broth?

For the most luxurious, gelatinous flavorful broth, be sure to favor bones with joints. You want those intersections and moving parts! This is where the cartilage, collagen, and synovial fluid are highest, translating into legit bone broth. Include parts like knuckles, feet, tails, necks, backs, wings, and ears! Don’t be afraid to even cook the head of the animal in your broth. Bone broth is a great way to be resourceful, and use the entire animal.

Broth Variations and Recipes

Over the years I’ve shared a variety of recipes and variations for making different broths. Here is a compilation of my bone broth variations: chicken bone broth four ways, and turkey stock. It’s fun to play around with different seasonings, different bones, with and without vegetables, roasting and not roasting the bones, etc.

For those of you who enjoy bone broth but would rather not always cook your own (I’m one), I asked Kettle & Fire (a company, in the interest of full disclosure, that I believe in and even invested in) to offer a deal to MDA readers who wanted to try their product. Depending on the package you order, you’ll get up to 3 FREE cartons when you order their chicken bone broth (excellent flavor in my book). 

That’s it for me, folks. Let me open it up for discussion now. Questions, additional recipes, comments? What’s your unique reason (or favorite way) to enjoy bone broth? Thanks for stopping by, and take care.

The post The Definitive Guide to Bone Broth Benefits appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

CrossFit Training: How to Add Mass and Build Strength with Primal

Gaining mass and building strength while CrossFitting should be a breeze. You’re lifting heavy things using compound full-body movements like squats, deadlifts, and presses, providing a potent growth stimulus to your muscles. Yet, many people fall short of their goals, perhaps losing weight and improving performance but failing to really gain any real muscle or strength.

Today, I’m going to explain how going Primal can help you achieve both goals.

First, you must understand the very Primal reality of your body’s hormonal systems and their relation to the environment: Acknowledge that you are an organism whose endocrine system is acutely attuned to the inputs it receives. It’s actively engaged in the world around you, making predictions and taking actions based on your perceptions. If your body thinks it’s living through a famine, it will conserve energy and eliminate wasteful extravagances like big muscles and 2x body weight back squat. If your body thinks it’s living through plentiful times, it will be more liberal with energy and allow the growth of extracurricular tissues, like big muscles. Create an environment of abundance—or even the impression of one—and you will be more likely to gain muscle and strength.

First and Foremost, Eat More Calories

Providing a caloric surplus doesn’t just provide the raw materials necessary to build more tissue, though that’s a big part of it. It also sends the message to your endocrine system that you’re living in a resource-rich environment and that it’s okay to splurge a bit. Your body, first and foremost, just wants to survive. CrossFitters have a higher baseline because of the stressful training they engage in, so the calorie excess is really important here. Start by adding about 10% to your calorie intake.

Get Your Precursors!

People forget that hormones—the anabolic foremen directing the operation that constructs new muscle tissue—are material things with physical precursors, triggers, and building blocks. Most of the necessary precursors, triggers, and building blocks come from the food we eat.

Protein Is a Major One

The muscles are made of protein. That’s why eating the skeletal muscle of animals is the best way to get a dense whack of protein. It also means we need to eat protein to build more muscle. But protein helps stimulate muscle protein synthesis by another route, too: spiking insulin, which shuttles amino acids into muscle tissue.

A 2011 paper on optimal protein intakes for athletes concluded that 1.8 g protein/kg bodyweight (or 0.8 g protein/lb bodyweight) maximizes muscle protein synthesis, whereas another suggested “a diet with 12-15% of its energy as protein.” 0.8 g/lb is probably a safe baseline, and you may not need much more than that. 

Carbs Are Important As Well

While they aren’t necessary for muscle gain, they can certainly help when used in the right context. For one, they spike insulin, which helps shuttle amino acids into muscle for muscle protein synthesis. They replenish lost glycogen, which you need to support future strength training endeavors. When you do eat carbs in a post-workout context, keep fat low. Fat is a huge factor in muscle gain (as you’re read below), but not in an acute, immediate sense. In the post workout carb-loading window, dietary fat is more likely to be stored.

Eat as many carbs as you earn.

Favor Saturated and Monounsaturated Fats over Polyunsaturated Fats

The more saturated and monounsaturated fat you eat, the higher your testosterone. But as you increase the amount of omega-6 polyunsaturated fat you eat in relation to saturated and monounsaturated fat, you lower your testosterone, increasing your cortisol:testosterone ratio and impeding your ability to gain muscle and strength.

Eat Seafood on a Regular Basis

The omega-3 fats, found in fatty fish, fish oil, shellfish, and cod liver oil, have been shown to improve muscle protein synthesis in healthy young and middle-aged adults. Seafood tends to be rich in micronutrients that are important for building muscle, like zinc (oysters). An added bonus that seafood itself provides a bevy of pro-anabolic nutrients. Even codfish protein may have particularly potent muscle-building powers.

Increase Your Cholesterol Intake

Yes, increase. The current scientific consensus is that dietary cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease. On the contrary, cholesterol is a precursor to testosterone; extra dietary cholesterol may increase testosterone production.

Increase Your Zinc Intake

Zinc is another important precursor to testosterone production. In young adults subjected to daily training, supplementing with zinc prevented the normal reduction in thyroid and testosterone production. Oysters and red meat are the best sources of zinc.

Eat Plenty of Vitamin A and D

Preferably vitamin A pre-formed in animals, and vitamin D from the sun.

Both vitamin A and vitamin D interact to increase muscle protein synthesis. Liver is the best source of vitamin A. Cod liver oil is also good and comes with vitamin D.

Foods to Prioritize for These Nutrients and Precursors

Whole eggs, not just the whites. Pastured eggs will contain far more micronutrients than conventional eggs.
Oysters and mussels.
Cod liver oil.
Beef and chicken liver.
Sardines, wild salmon, cod.

Other Variables To Improve Your Gains
Prioritize Strength Training

I said at the start of this series that I wouldn’t make recommendations that interfered with your workouts. After all, your whole purpose is to support your CrossFit training. Most CF boxes I’ve known include straight strength work alongside, or sometimes as a replacement for, classic metabolic conditioning workouts (the WODs).

If gaining mass and muscle and strength is your primary goal, consider switching out a metcon or two for some of these straight-up strength training sessions, or maybe modifying your approach to the metcon. Instead of going for time, go for intensity. Focus on hitting the lifts, even increasing the weight if need be, and allow yourself more rest. You won’t place first, but you’ll provide a different stimulus that should increase strength gains.

Don’t Forget Your Tendons

Muscle is great. Everyone can appreciate a bulging bicep, a striated calf, a wide back, prominent traps. They exude strength. They produce strength. But there’s another aspect to strength that goes unacknowledged: the tendons.

Tendons are rather mysterious. What do they do, exactly, and how do they figure into strength?

They attach muscles to bones. Muscles transmit force through the tendon and make movement possible. Contracting your muscles pulls on the tendons, which yanks on the bone, producing movement.

Tendons also provide an elastic response, a stretch-shortening recoil effect that helps you jump, run, lift heavy things, and absorb impacts. Think of it like a rubber band. A healthy, strong tendon can provide a lot of recoil strength.

CrossFit, in particular, places a lot of demands on the tendons. All those Olympic lifts, those kipping pullups, those muscle-ups, those box jumps? The tendon shoulders the load and makes the movements possible. You need to support them, make them stronger, to get stronger yourself.

Eccentrics (lowering the weight) are the best and simplest treatment we have right now for treating and even healing tendon injuries. Since heel dips can heal Achilles’ tendinopathy and single-leg decline eccentric squats can heal patellar tendinopathy, doing them before injuries occur should make them stronger and more resistant.

CrossFit is about moving as quickly and safely and cleanly as you can, but consider weaving in some light-ish, slow eccentric movements. Downhill walking, slowly lowering oneself to the bottom pushup position, eccentric bicep or wrist curls, and anything that places a load on the muscle-tendon complex while lengthening should improve the involved tendons.

Don’t Shortchange Recovery

Cortisol production is a normal part of the post workout hormone response in addition to a healthy circadian rhythm and stress response. However, when those levels are chronically too high, the effect can be catabolic rather than anabolic. This nterferes with the degree of muscle growth that’s possible compared to the potential with proper rest.

Get Your Collagen

Our tendons contain a ton of collagen, and few people eat or make enough of its constituent amino acids to cover all our tissue-building needs. Eat collagen, drink bone broth, or eat plenty of gelatin-rich meats like skin, oxtail, shank, and neck to provide adequate glycine. Taking 15 grams of gelatin with vitamin C an hour before your workout enhances collagen synthesis in connective tissues (which include the tendons).

There’s a lot of advice out there for gaining weight and building muscle and getting stronger. Much of it is effective—you do what they recommend and you’ll get stronger—but most of it is incomplete. After today’s post, I hope you feel equipped with more information, and I hope that information helps you unlock new and greater gains.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care!

This article was co-written with Laura Rupsis, Level 1 CrossFit Certified, Primal Health Coach Certified, and owner of Absolution CrossFit in La Grange, IL.

The post CrossFit Training: How to Add Mass and Build Strength with Primal appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Keto Reset Eating Plan, Better Weight Scales, PB Fitness Carb Requirements, and the Best Fish Sauce

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering/addressing four questions/comments. First, will my new Keto Reset book provide detailed meal plans or vague recommendations? Second, is there a better weight scale than the scale? Mathieu thinks there is, and I agree. Third, if you’re doing the Primal Blueprint Fitness program, do the recommendations I made in the Crossfit and carbs posts apply? And fourth, what’s the best fish sauce?

Let’s go.

First, Vee asks:

I’ve read the article above [Definitive Guide to Keto], and quite a bit of the comments below, but what I would like to know is just how detailed is this book going to be? I’m one of those people who need a plan laid out with measurements, not with eat this per so much per lean body mass, etc. I need amounts like tsp, tbsp, cups, oz, etc. Also, I pre-ordered Dr. Mercola’s book, Fat for Fuel, and was completely disappointed when I got it. i thought there would be a definitive plan to follow, but I shut the book, never to look at it again when I read about all the testing he suggested on a daily basis,as well as many blood tests that he suggested in addition to that, as well as ‘keeping your doctor apprised’ of what you’re doing. Huh? I avoid doctors as much as possible except in emergency situations, pretty much I need to be unconscious to go. (many bad experiences with MDs), so I was very disappointed with his book – drs. pretty much just throw RX drugs at you if you have a “medical” condition, so the best thing I can of is try to take care of myself thru diet, exercise, and relaxation.. I just don’t feel that eating should be so darned complicated. Making a short question long, does your book have a detailed eating plan so I can easily come up with menus I’d like to follow?? Thank you!

Oh, yeah. I include not just one, but two 21-day meal plans. Each is incredibly detailed.

The first is for the 21-day metabolism reset—which helps you build the necessary metabolic machinery to make keto work better and go more easily. The second 21-day plan is for actually going keto—for getting into and staying in nutritional ketosis. Both remove the guesswork. If you eat the food and follow the recipes and portion recommendations, you’ll establish a good rhythm that will help you reach your goals.

While you very well could stick to the 21-day meal plans laid out in the book for the rest of your life, I’d urge you to branch out a bit. You might want to pick up a new sport or attempt a new physical challenge where you experiment with different macronutrient intake patterns. You might get tired of the same meals. Basically, you should be able to adjust on the fly depending on what you need out of your body. My upcoming book provides that information, if you’re willing to give it a shot.

Stay tuned for it. It sounds like it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

Mathieu made a great comment that I had to build upon and support with evidence because I think it’s so important:

That’s also why the best weight scale is a mirror ?

Or a belt. Or a tape measure. Or that one article of clothing you’ve been trying to fit into.

People may think Mathieu and I are being flippant, but we’re not. Subjective impressions are often more reliable and representative of a person’s health than objective measurements. Take apparent age based on facial appearance—it’s a better predictor of health and longevity than objective biomarkers.

Brandi asked:

Mark, this was a GREAT post. I’m wondering how or if this advice applies to those of us that are doing the Primal Blueprint’s regular type of strength + sprint training combo – i.e., a PEM 2x per week plus a sprint session 1x every 7-10 days, plus low-intensity activity every other day. Does the “highER carb / lowER fat” on PEM / Sprint days apply for those of us NOT engaged in HIIT? Guess I’m wondering if all training session days deserve this consideration, or if it’s just applicable for CF’ers and folks engaging in HIIT. Signed, Legitimately Scared of Carbs…

There’s a big difference between true sprints (where you’re achieving full or close to full recovery in between sprints), HIIT (where you keep rest periods short to promote endurance adaptations), and strength training.

You can sprint quite effectively on low-carb, especially if you stick to shorter sprints (10 seconds and under). At that length, you’re primarily hitting the ATP-PC pathway. That’s when you convert the creatine phosphate stored in the muscle directly into ATP. It doesn’t last long—we can’t store much creatine phsophate at once—but it produces incredible power and refills rather quickly with adequate rest. Longer sprints will start really tapping into the glycolytic (sugar-burning) pathway.

Lower-rep, higher-intensity strength training with longer rest periods is also very effective on low carb, as it, too, primarily targets the ATP-PC pathway and allows sufficient rest to replenish it. Higher-rep training will veer into glycogen-burning. Intensity matters, too. High reps with moderate weight will burn glycogen pretty quick. High reps with bodyweight give you more leeway.

Low-carb is fine for the program you describe.

Gypsyrozbud asked:

Can someone please recommend a variety of fish sauce that I can get in Canada that does not have any sugar in it????

Red Boat is the best stuff you can buy. These reviewers agree. Imagine this:

You, half-starved, in a daze after slamming your head during the storm that destroyed your ship, stumble down a mysterious beach chasing a scent. It rises above the usual briny rankness, reminding you of that time at the 4 AM tuna auction in Tsukiji market, where you realized “fishy” wasn’t always a bad thing. You come upon a fisherman. He’s squatting in front of a bowl of rice and dried pork, and the sun is overhead. It must be lunchtime. You bring your fingers to your mouth, miming, trying to convey hunger. He looks you over, squints, takes a drag on his cigarette, then fishes out an old mason jar full of murky liquid—homemade fish sauce—from a plastic shopping bag and splashes it over his rice. He hands the bowl over. You dig in, and it’s the best thing you’ve ever tasted.

The way that fantasy fisherman made his fish sauce is the same way Red Boat does: fish, salt, and time.

That’s it for me, folks. Thanks for reading and be sure to give you input down below. Have a great rest of the week.

The post Dear Mark: Keto Reset Eating Plan, Better Weight Scales, PB Fitness Carb Requirements, and the Best Fish Sauce appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekend Link Love – Edition 462

RESEARCH OF THE WEEK

The sperm count in men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand has declined by 50% over the last 40 years.

Sperm quality is down in dogs, too.

Birthday wishes do come true, as long as you wish to increase the cake’s bacterial levels by 1500%.

Another study shows that wearing blue blocking goggles at night boosts melatonin levels, even when you use your smartphone.

Watching TV for a few hours a week might not be so bad (and may even be good) for a kid’s brain development as long as they watch and discuss it with a caretaker.

Hip thrusts are great but don’t seem to increase sprint performance.

Turns out the Canaanites weren’t killed off.

High brain iron may precipitate Alzheimer’s.

NEW PRIMAL BLUEPRINT PODCASTS

Episode 179: Thor Conklin: Host Elle Russ chats with Thor Conklin, an entrepreneur who credits his healthy paleo lifestyle as a critical co-factor in his success.

Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.

CrossFit Training: How to Lose Fat with Primal
Stop Obsessing Over the Numbers
5 Non-Dietary Factors That Influence Your Microbiome

INTERESTING BLOG POSTS

How to lower your cholesterol, if you’re into that sort of thing.

This isn’t fake news.

MEDIA, SCHMEDIA

Why Wif Hof explicitly cautions against doing his breathing techniques in or around water.

Homo erectus may have displayed human-like thinking at least 1.8 million years ago.

EVERYTHING ELSE

The overwhelming importance of conscientiousness.

DNA evidence is changing everything we thought we knew about plant and animal domestication.

How is the poke craze affecting yellowfin populations?

The first human embryos were just edited in the US using CRISPR.

It’s always nice to see a success story.

THINGS I’M UP TO AND INTERESTED IN

Nice take on the AHA/coconut oil controversy: From Nina Teicholz.

I hope they used avocado oil: Bob Dylan potato chips are all the rage in China.

I would have liked this guy: Japanese longevity expert who recently died at 105 had great advice for long life.

I’m glad I never got into playing football: 110/111 NFL brains were found to have evidence of CTE, the neurodegenerative disease caused by trauma.

I just did the same thing last week: Man thinks cubed butternut squash is cubed cheese, tries to return it.

RECIPE CORNER

Paleo char siu. Who doesn’t love that red pork?
Slow cooker short ribs that slip right off the bone.

TIME CAPSULE

One year ago (Jul 30– Aug 5)

The Primal Competitive Instinct: What is it Good For? – How we can harness our desire to beat the other guys.
Is Gluten Sensitivity All in Your Head? – No.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

“Good stuff as always Mark I just beg you to never publish a link to an article that states eating a couple of bites of 85% chocolate every day is bad for me. ?”

– Even if such a study were to come out, I’d suppress the findings with every ounce of my being, HealthyHombre.

Want to make fat loss easier?

Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

The post Weekend Link Love – Edition 462 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Tamari and Kombu Soft-Boiled Eggs

Hardboiled eggs are a perfect snack, but even a perfect snack can get boring sometimes. This recipe offers a slight variation—and, oh, what a difference! A mild-flavored hard-boiled egg turns into an umami flavor bomb. This egg practically melts in your mouth, thanks to a yolk that is creamy and runny instead of dry and chalky. The soft, rich middle is a delicious contrast to the salty flavor and firm texture of the outer egg white.

Try a soft-boiled egg once, and you might never go back to hard-boiled. The change is easy to make—simply boil the eggs a few minutes less. Eggs are the ultimate Primal food source, full of protein, healthy fats, and a variety of vitamins and minerals. The more ways you can enjoy them, the better. A carton of soft-boiled tamari and kombu eggs is a healthy and easy go-to snack to keep in the fridge.

(P.S. Kombu isn’t an ingredient that’s absolutely necessary for this recipe, but it’s worth adding. Steeping kombu in the marinade extracts minerals and makes these eggs an even healthier supplemental food).

Servings: 6 soft-boiled eggs

Time in the Kitchen: 25 minutes

Ingredients

6 eggs
3/4 cup warm water (180 ml)
½ cup tamari* (120 ml)
2 tablespoons coconut aminos (30 ml)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (30 ml)
2-inches ginger root, peeled and chopped (5 cm)
1 strip kombu, broken into 2 pieces

Instructions

*The saltiness of tamari can vary between brands. If your first batch of eggs is too salty, cut back on the amount of tamari used for future batches.

In a medium bowl, whisk together warm water, tamari, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, ginger and kombu. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Use a large spoon to carefully set the eggs in the bottom of the pot.

For soft-boiled eggs, cook exactly 7 minutes.

While the eggs boil, fill a large bowl with water and ice.

When the eggs are done, set them gently in the bowl of ice water.

When the eggs are cool, peel while holding the egg underwater (this helps the shells come off more easily).

Submerge the eggs in the tamari marinade so they are completely covered. If the eggs aren’t completely submerged, try a different sized bowl or a jar, or, add more water.

Marinate the eggs in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours (after that the eggs tend to get too salty). If refrigerated, the eggs will stay fresh for about a week out of the marinade. The marinade can be kept in the refrigerator and re-used for more eggs.

The post Tamari and Kombu Soft-Boiled Eggs appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Success Story Follow-Up: Each Modification Has Built on What I Had Established

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Like many other Mark’s Daily Apple readers, I spent most of my life with my eye on the destination or goal and, for the most part, ignored the journey. I can’t say that this approach was a bad one as I had been chugging along for fifty years having moderate success achieving my education, career and personal goals. I applied the same goal orientation to weight management/exercise and would consistently hit the goals (ex. target weights, miles run, etc.) I set but seemed to never get healthier as things would fall apart when I achieved the goal I set. After multiple successful diet and exercise campaigns over the years followed by returning to my old unhealthy ways, I ballooned up to 240 pounds in 2012 and began to see the onset of my health deteriorating as a result of this yo-yo approach to health management.

Then, five years ago, I began the most important impactful journey of my life…the path to living a healthy, long life. Except, I didn’t know I was even on this journey. I started out, as I described in my first Mark’s Daily Apple contribution, with a decision to go to a gluten free diet to address a gall bladder condition. After doing research and reading The Primal Blueprint, I then extended my diet and made a few lifestyle changes to primal. I felt the best I ever felt and this awesome feeling sent me on this journey to better health.

While I wasn’t conscious of it, this journey was very different as I didn’t have a specific set target, such as losing a set number of pounds or training for a marathon, in mind. I was simply focused on better health. It was similar to the approach one would use during their education journey. We don’t focus on one subject or one experience. The most effective educational journeys are the ones where we integrate studies in many areas with social and cultural experiences to achieve personal enrichment. Getting educated is about the series of experiences (journey) and not about simply getting the degree (destination). In fact, the very best educations are the ones that result in lifelong learning and extend beyond the degree.

I applied this same multi-discipline educational approach to getting “better health.” Unlike every other journey in my life, I was not focused on the end game but became totally focused on the journey. I didn’t plan it this way. It just happened. The journey, itself, became so fulfilling that I never wanted to reach “the goal.” This was counterintuitive for me as every other journey in my life I was riveted on reaching “the goal.” Like many educational journeys, my health journey was about learning about multiple disciplines and then, selectively, incorporating them into my way of life one layer at a time. The layering effect has had a snowballing effect. Each new health layer I added in made me feel better and made me even more motivated to find the “next layer.” After the decision to layer in a primal diet on top of my gluten free diet, I then consciously looked at my cardio-obsessed approach to exercise to incorporate exercise modifications as part of my lifelong journey to better health.

Each of these disciplines (ex. diet, exercise) of my lifelong health journey have developed into sub journeys. For example, my approach to diet started out as a gluten-free modification to my diet back in 2012. Shortly later, I then layered in the Primal Diet. Several years later, after many hours of research, I layered in the Ketogenic diet along with intermittent fasting (16 -18 hour daily fasts) on top of the primal diet. The important point is that each of these modifications build upon what I have established and are refinements. I am not starting one diet fad, throwing it away, and then adopting another diet fad. I also continue to look to find ways to continue to improve my way of eating as part of my lifelong health journey I am on and expect that I will be able to share new modifications if we speak in a year.

My exercise journey has evolved from my previous lifelong focus on just distance running back to an incorporation of some weight and core training when I started “the journey.” During the last couple of years, I have layered in High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and yoga on top of my cardio/weight/core exercise platform. Given the value of exercise, I have made it a larger priority and have increased my exercise time from a few hours a week to about ten hours a week. At times this can be demanding with family and job responsibilities, but there are plenty of ways to find a few extra hours in a 168 hour week. There are so many new and exciting programs that I can’t wait to learn about to see if it will become the next layer.

One of the most powerful disciplines in this journey is what I learned about the potential of the mind. The mind is incredibly powerful and can be unleashed to heal just about anything. There is a famous saying that, “where your mind goes, your body follows.” By applying positive thinking and visualizing the results I wanted, I have been able to achieve more. It’s mind over body. Your mind is very much interconnected to your body. I have learned the importance of controlling stress and being happy. When you are stressed, your body creates hormones like cortisol. Too much cortisol increases risk of disease like cancer. The world is stressful. I realized the need to find ways to de-stress. Many do meditation. I have practiced thoughtful breathing and focusing on “staying present” as powerful relaxation techniques. Thoughtful breathing entails closing my mouth and taking deep breaths in and concentrating on the cleaning air going in and through your body and exhaling cleansing breaths. This really helps when I am trying to fall asleep. Staying present is thoughtfully working to focus on thinking and enjoying the present moment. When I take a walk now, have a conversation or exercise, I try not to my mind wander off to think ahead what is coming up. Staying present and enjoy the moment lowers stress. One of the best ways for me to de-stress is to exercise regularly. I have layered in massage and recently went to my first reflexology session to aide in stress relief and relaxation.

As part of my journey, I have developed a new level of respect for a couple of other basic life disciplines such as sleeping well and getting enough sun. I became aware of how important it is to get enough sleep and the need to sleep during the right hours at night. This level of consciousness about sleep has resulted in feeling much more rested. I also became aware that too little sun (and the Vitamin D you get) is a far bigger health risk than too much sun. I try to get 20 minutes of direct sun light a day without sun block.

Another major discipline in my journey is awareness around toxin intake and the importance of detoxifying. Toxic buildup increases risks of disease like cancer. The air, food supply and water have become increasingly more contaminated and can have a massive effect on your health and longevity. I realized the need to work hard to minimize the amount of toxins I was consuming and, also, how to get rid of the toxins (detox) that I knew I was retaining. I shifted from drinking bottled water (stored in plastic containers) to drinking filtered water.

After learning about its value, we prioritized buying clean (organic), whole food and realized that the costs to deal with medical issues were way more than the cost of buying clean food. Despite working hard to limit harmful intake, I realized the importance of getting rid of the toxins that I was soaking up. For this reason, we purchased an infrared sauna and use it daily. The sweat that is produced contains a relatively high amount of toxic build up. It is one of the best ways to release toxins and is a wonderful way to relax. Exercise is a great way to release toxins as well. I realized that toxicity and detox apply to people, relationships and your job as well. They can have an equally destructive impact on your health as well. I saw the importance of minimizing or ending relationships that were toxic and the need to avoid spending time with negative, toxic people. I continue to look to spend more time with positive people.

My decision, five years ago, to move to a gluten free diet was the start of a health journey that I didn’t know I was starting. This was a much different approach to dealing with health issues as I was focused on the lifelong journey for better health and not to getting to an arbitrary weight goal and ignoring the other health disciplines and then return to my old habits. I know that I am only at the start of this journey and am more motivated than ever to find new layers to incorporate into this wonderful journey. I would love to learn about what others have done in their journeys.

The post Success Story Follow-Up: Each Modification Has Built on What I Had Established appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

CrossFit Training: How to Lose Fat with Primal

Note: Many of you have written to me wondering about my newfound obsession with CrossFit. I’m responding to a steady stream of requests from CFers who want to do Primal but have been led to believe that the two are incompatible. Even if you have no interest in CrossFit, understand that much of the advice contained in this series also applies to people following a different training path.

As much as CrossFitters claim to concern themselves primarily with increasing physical performance and work capacity across broad modal domains, they also want to lose body fat. There’s nothing wrong or superficial about that, mind you. Excess body fat is unnecessary and, depending on the quantity and location, dangerous to your long-term health. It also impedes performance, acting as dead weight. We have every reason to want to lose body fat.

CrossFit is well-known for leaning people out. But there’s also a small but significant portion of people who struggle to lose body fat despite—or perhaps because of—hitting the box religiously and doing all the workouts. This post is for them.

What about Carb Intake? How Much and When?

Many people ask, “I’m CrossFitting. Should I go low-carb or high-carb to lose body fat?” My answer is “yes.”

You heard me right. You should do both. As I explained in a previous post, CrossFitters require carbs. How many depends on their level of fat adaptation, the intensity with which they train, the training volume they accrue, and other factors, but the fact remains that CF workouts are very glycogen-demanding. If you want to maintain and increase performance, you need to refuel that glycogen, and starchy carbohydrates are the best way to do it. Revisit the carb/CF post to get some ideas on good Primal sources of starch.

But it’s not just about recovery. Eating the carbs you earn can actually enhance fat loss. Here’s how:

If you engage in glycogen-depleting activity, your body will want to replenish the glycogen. You can do so by either eating the glucose directly or making it.

If you burn carbs and don’t replenish them, you’ll trigger a stress response to initiate gluconeogenesis (the creation of new glucose). This means cortisol goes up.

If cortisol goes up and stays up, you’ll lose lean mass (to provide amino acids to convert into glucose) and retain/gain body fat.

In most people, consistent low carb will help you lose weight, but the glucose demanded by CrossFit will trigger muscle loss and fat gain if the demand goes unmet.

But on rest days, where you’re not expending much glycogen, there’s no good reason to “carb up.” On the contrary, you want to keep insulin low to promote fat-burning. That means low-carb.

On training days, eat higher carb and lower fat with plenty of protein, with the bulk of the carbs taken in and around your training session.
On rest days, eat low-carb, higher-fat, and plenty of protein.

What about Calories? They Matter, Right?

Calories matter, sure.

Most people fail with carefully-curated calorie intakes. Counting calories seems to work a bit better if you’re training regularly, eating high quality, nutrient dense food that doesn’t interfere with satiation mechanisms, and eating plenty of protein. But even then, I’m skeptical. It’s just too much work for too little gain for most people, and there’s a good chance it fails. I find it far more effective to let your body control its own calorie intake.

That’s where the oscillation between high-carbs on training days and low-carbs on rest days shines:

Low carb rest days will almost certainly be reduced calorie thanks to well-established greater satiation on high-fat/low-carb diets. Training days become high calorie because you’re hungrier and you’re eating more carbs. This creates an organic fractal pattern of calorie intake, an oscillating schedule of deficit and excess, which allows both fat loss and performance gains. Studies show that intermittent calorie reduction in this manner is more effective for fat loss and lean mass retention than chronic calorie reduction.

Switch between low-carb on rest days and higher-carb on training days.  You’re naturally hungry after all that exercise, so you eat more on training days. You’re not as hungry eating fewer carbs and keeping intensity low, so you eat less on rest days. It just happens.

I anticipate some questions about what “higher carb” means in terms of grams. The answer is, it depends. It depends on your own genetic predisposition, how many days a week you’re at the gym, your gender (men tend to burn through glycogen faster then women) and your other mitigating lifestyle factors. With that qualifier in mind, my thought is pick a starting place that makes sense to you, say 150-200 grams on your training days, and see if your level of activity/glycogen depletion supports it. On rest days, if you stick to keeping your carbs to non-startchy veggies, then you are likely in good shape.

What about Nutrient Timing?

While I wouldn’t worry about nutrient timing to the point of inducing a panic attack if you get hungry at the wrong time, eating the bulk of your carbohydrates shortly after an intense training session offers several advantages:

Glycogen depletion is local. The muscles you use are the muscles that lose glycogen. Since CrossFit workouts tend to target the entire body, you’ll create a large glycogen debt that can be safely repaid.

You can take advantage of a process called non-insulin dependent glucose uptake. This allows your muscles to gobble up glycogen without needing insulin to do it. The more intense your training, the greater the effect.

Exercise increases insulin sensitivity, meaning you need less insulin to get the same effect (glycogen repletion). Your muscles are insulin-sensitive after a WOD, particularly the ones you used. Since insulin impedes fat burning, less insulin means fat burning goes up. Here are some other ways to increase insulin sensitivity, by the way.

These post-exercise enhancements to glycogen repletion last for about three hours on average, so you don’t have to rush.

You have even more time to eat protein and take advantage of enhanced muscle protein synthesis following a workout. Four hours after a heavy training session, muscle protein synthesis is elevated by 50%. At 24 hours post-workout, it’s up by 109%. At 36 hours is when it begins returning to baseline. For all intents and purposes, protein timing isn’t all that important. Just make sure you eat it.

Men and women may want to consider the following study done for the BBC last year, where Dr. Adam Collins placed men and women on different meal/workout timing protocols to see how they’d affect the fat-burning ability of both genders. For four weeks, participants took part in three weekly Zumba sessions (yeah, yeah, far from CrossFit) and either received a carb-rich drink pre- or post-workout. Women who ate carbs before training burned more fat, while men who ate before burned less. Men who went into the workout on an empty stomach and ate carbs after burned more body fat, while women who ate after burned less.

Though the short study didn’t note any differences in body weight or waist circumference, it presages a difference between how men and women respond to meal timing that could affect fat loss over the long haul. This jibes with my experience. I’ve always done well training on an empty stomach. Though I’m not exactly interested in losing body fat, I am interested in burning more fat—while the women I’ve worked with and consulted over the years function better when they eat prior to workouts. There are exceptions to everything, of course, but that’s the trend.

The Other Stuff

Primal truly shines in its dedication to all the “other stuff”—the lifestyle variables that play massive roles in our health, happiness, and fitness. Though fat loss depends mostly on diet, some of these other variables can impact fat loss.

Stress and Sleep

I include these as a pair because they form a vicious circle of metabolic derangement. Bad sleep can increase stress, which can affect your sleep. And on and on it goes.

We know from observational research that people who sleep the least and report feeling the most stress lose the least amount of weight.

Poor sleep makes junk food more enticing. It literally makes your hypothalamus respond more enthusiastically to the sight of the food you know you shouldn’t be eating. Some people are “stress eaters,” eating the sugariest, saltiest snack they can find to dampen the stress of everyday life. The thing about CrossFit is that you can probably “get away” with more junk and not gain much at all, but you’ll definitely lose fat more slowly.

A bad night’s sleep also impairs insulin sensitivity across multiple metabolic pathways, making you less tolerant of carbs and requiring more insulin to do the job.

Chronic stress is a notorious promoter of chronic cortisol, which can promote belly fat gain and make losing body fat extra difficult.

It’s absolutely imperative that any CrossFitter intersted in losing body fat optimize their sleep hygiene and get a handle on their stress levels. That could mean going to bed before 10 PM, wearing weird-looking orange goggles at night, or moving from the 5 AM class to the 6:30 AM class. It might mean finally trying meditation, doing regular float tanks, or spending more time in nature. I’ve written a ton on both sleep and stress, so check out the recommendations in those posts for more ideas.

Walking

Walking might feel like a waste of time. What’s the point of spending time doing something 95% of the planet can perform when you could be squatting, snatching, or doing box jumps?

Long, frequent walks in an energy-restricted state (as you should be on rest days) are one of the better tools for easy (but not quick) fat loss. At that level of intensity and volume, you’re running on pure body fat.

On rest days, don’t just binge Netflix shows. Get up and move around. Walk. Hike. You could even go for a long leisurely bike ride or do some really light rowing for long distances. The key is going at a pace you can maintain indefinitely.

That’s it for today. That’ll get you a big part of the way toward losing body fat. If anyone has any questions about the topic, go ahead and leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care.

This article was co-written with Laura Rupsis, Level 1 CrossFit Certified, Primal Health Coach Certified, and owner of Absolution CrossFit in La Grange, IL.

The post CrossFit Training: How to Lose Fat with Primal appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Stop Obsessing Over the Numbers

My friend, former co-competitor, business partner, and writing buddy Brad Kearns had been on a “Quantified Self” kick, tracking biomarkers, testing blood sugar and ketone levels, and staying abreast of all the various ways we can quantitatively check our progress. He’s months into a ketogenic experiment and had hoped to marry his subjective impressions to objective measurements to strengthen his intuition and improve his results.

Then, several weeks ago, it all changed. Using the same finger prick sample, he checked his fasting blood sugar using three separate devices. Same blood sample, three devices purporting to give accurate readings. You’d think the results would be similar, if not identical. They weren’t:

That’s not just a few points here or there. That disparity is well outside the standard deviation. The numbers can’t be trusted, because which one’s right? And if you can’t trust the numbers, what’s the point of gathering them?

Brad’s results were extraordinary, but making any conclusions from the measurement of an organism’s secretions, emissions, and fluids must be tempered with the fact that biology is chaotic. It isn’t clean, neat, and predictable. If you dig deep enough, it might be predictable, but we don’t yet have the technology capable of untangling it.

This isn’t just limited to over-the-counter glucose monitors either. 

Gut Biome Testing: The different gut biome sequencing services can produce different results. One person had about as contradictory a pair of results as you can get from the same sample. In another case, taking samples from different sections on the same poop gave different bacterial readings. Bacterial strains do not have uniform distribution throughout the turd.

Blood Testing: Each blood drop is different from the next. This is where services like Theranos ran afoul of reality—they claimed they could test individual drops of blood for dozens of biomarkers. That’s all well and good, but a single drop is not representative of the the rest of the blood.

Sleep Tracking: Commercial sleep tracking is notoriously inaccurate, overstimating sleep duration even comparing poorly to established medical devices for tracking sleep, like polysomnography (used in sleep studies) and actigraphs. They give a false sense of security. That’s dangerous. If you’re only sleeping 6 1/2 hours and feeling lousy, but the machine insists you’re getting a full 8 hours a night, and you trust it (it’s “objective” after all), you will jeopardize your health. 

Let’s say the numbers are even accurate. This is only a snapshot of one drop of blood in one minute in a living organism, so trying to discern the truth from a single blood test is like trying to understand the plot of Gone with the Wind by looking at a movie poster. Then, when you factor in how inaccurate the numbers can be from machine to machine or from lab to lab, it makes it even more ridiculous to try to craft any kind of lifestyle strategy based on them. 

Almost a decade ago, a routine visit to the doctor for a skin checkup almost got me placed on blood pressure meds. It was 140/100. I refused, opting to track my own blood pressure over the next week at home using a store-bought device. The results were stunning:

Across 50 readings, I never got the same numbers twice.

My highest was 133/92, taken after leaving the doctor’s office. My lowest was 102/66, that same night after dinner. So, I went from needing drugs and a low-salt diet to l0w-normal BP over the course of 24 hours.

At night, my BP settled in around 110/67 on average.

That cemented for me how ridiculous it is to determine someone’s long-term health trajectory based on a single reading. Blood pressure, as with any physiological biomarker, fluctuates for a reason. When you’re exercising, it’s high to help shuttle oxygen and nutrients around the body. Stress also heightens the need for oxygen and nutrients—so you can deal with whatever stressor ails you—and thus increases blood pressure. It’s helpful when required, bad in excess.

Then there was the time I tested at almost 17% body fat despite looking like this.

Even in that perfect world where every blood drop is identical to the next and every lab machine and OTC device are interchangeable, I’m just not sure if the objective measurements have any real use compared to the subjective measurements.

Do you have energy all day?

Do you wake up feeling refreshed?

Do you want to work out?

Can you make it to lunch without eating or complaining?

Are you productive?

Are you happy with your body composition?

These are the questions to ask. If you can answer affirmatively, what more do you want? I have trouble seeing how numbers on a device that may not even be accurate can improve on those subjective biomarkers.

Another danger of reliance on lab tests, not widely acknowledged, is that we lose touch with our bodies. When we have numbers for everything, why pay attention to something as inaccurate, imprecise, and subjective as “how I feel”?  After all, nobody bothers remembering phone numbers anymore. This will only worsen the more technology improves and accuracy increases. You’ll have robot doctors or implants hooked up to your smartphone analyzing your health using complex algorithms based on biomarkers that are 100% accurate. “Trust the AI,” they’ll say, and there’s some truth to that. Who are you to disregard a supercomputer with 1000x the brainpower of John von Neumann?

Call me a Luddite, but we lose something important in that scenario. Humans are the thinking and feeling animal. We ponder the meaning of life and possess intuitive powers. That’s what makes us so dominant—the ability to use executive functioning to harness and direct our more base urges and instincts. If we no longer have to feel and can rely on flawless biofeedback relayed by sensors and trackers, will we cease to be human?

I don’t know the answer to that. That’s a tough one.

For now, stop rejecting your birthright as intelligent animals. Hone your intuition rather than surrender it. Don’t enslave yourself to the numbers and lab results. That doesn’t mean ignore them outright—particularly if you have a serious condition that requires treatment. I’m not suggesting anyone skip out on their medical care. But there’s this to keep in mind: Quantification is a tool, it’s not the full answer.

You come first. What you say matters. At least for now, it’s often the best biofeedback we have.

To sum up:

Test results are often unreliable and inaccurate.
Different devices/labs produce different results.
Most tests are single snapshots in time and do not represent the natural fluctuations that occur in any biomarker.
Subjective evaluations are more useful than objective numbers (that may be inaccurate/unreliable).
Relying on a machine to tell you how you’re feeling may atrophy our ability to feel.

What do you think, folks? How do you weigh objective biomarkers against subjective evaluations of how you’re looking, feeling, and performing? What provides the most value to your life and health? Thanks for reading.

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