Hang snatch 5-5-5-5-5
Followed by:
“Lynne”
5 Rounds of:
Max bodyweight bench press
Max pull-ups
Rest 3:00
Post loads and weights to comments and BTWB
An article in the NY Times was recently brought to my attention. Considering many of you are midway through Verve’s Nutrition Challenge I thought I would share the article with you. The article is titled “Always hungry? Here’s why” (click here to read full article). The article starts with a discussion about an idea that has been floating around for, well, ever about “calories in, calories out”. Seems legit. If I want to lose weight I have to burn more calories than I consume. This idea is the basis for most diets/ weight loss programs.
“When it comes to body weight, this means that calorie intake minus calorie expenditure equals calories stored. Surrounded by tempting foods, we overeat, consuming more calories than we can burn off, and the excess is deposited as fat. The simple solution is to exert willpower and eat less.”
The problem is that this advice does not work, at least not for most people over the long term. The question becomes why?
“. . . we’ve confused cause and effect? What if it’s not overeating that causes us to get fat, but the process of getting fatter that causes us to overeat?
The more calories we lock away in fat tissue, the fewer there are circulating in the bloodstream to satisfy the body’s requirements. If we look at it this way, it’s a distribution problem: We have an abundance of calories, but they’re in the wrong place. As a result, the body needs to increase its intake. We get hungrier because we’re getting fatter.
According to this alternative view, factors in the environment have triggered fat cells in our bodies to take in and store excessive amounts of glucose and other calorie-rich compounds. Since fewer calories are available to fuel metabolism, the brain tells the body to increase calorie intake (we feel hungry) and save energy (our metabolism slows down). Eating more solves this problem temporarily but also accelerates weight gain. Cutting calories reverses the weight gain for a short while, making us think we have control over our body weight, but predictably increases hunger and slows metabolism even more.”
What are these “factors in the environment” that are causing this change? Genetics, levels of physical activity, sleep, stress, and . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . “But one has an indisputably dominant role: the hormone insulin. We know that excess insulin treatment for diabetes causes weight gain, and insulin deficiency causes weight loss. And of everything we eat, highly refined and rapidly digestible carbohydrates produce the most insulin.”
“By this way of thinking, the increasing amount and processing of carbohydrates in the American diet has increased insulin levels, put fat cells into storage overdrive and elicited obesity-promoting biological responses in a large number of people. Like an infection that raises the body temperature set point, high consumption of refined carbohydrates — chips, crackers, cakes, soft drinks, sugary breakfast cereals and even white rice and bread — has increased body weights throughout the population.”
So what does this mean? Is this biological change we’ve created through consumption permanent or can we undo the damage that has been done?
“People in the modern food environment seem to have greater control over what they eat than how much. With reduced consumption of refined grains, concentrated sugar and potato products and a few other sensible lifestyle choices, our internal body weight control system should be able to do the rest. Eventually, we could bring the body weight set point back to pre-epidemic levels. Addressing the underlying biological drive to overeat may make for a far more practical and effective solution to obesity than counting calories.”
There is far more information contained within the article itself, this is merely a synopsis. I highly encourage everyone to read it in it’s entirety. To the point, a more effective form of weight loss may be a change in thinking about the kind of foods we eat rather than how much of it we eat.
*Don’t forget about the schedule changes on Tuesday evenings. We now have classes starting at 4pm, 5pm, 5:30pm, 6pm, and 6:30pm. All classes are still 1 hour long. Please sign up on MBO to reserve your spot.
*We now have morning Skilz classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30am. Sign up on MBO to reserve your spot.
