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Chapter 6
Burn Calories While You Eat: The Thermic Effect of Food By Elena Voropay
 When it comes to losing fat and building muscle, eating less food is not the answer to getting lean and cut. You already know that eating less slows your metabolism. Thousands of studies have shown that eating smaller meals more frequently cuts down on cravings, binges, low energy levels, endless suffering and hunger pangs. Dividing and conquering large helpings balances blood sugar levels, increases metabolism and burns fat like crazy. Want to know why? Part of the secret to keeping your fat levels in check is to use the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) to your advantage. What is the TEF? It is the heat released when the food is turned into fuel.
Caloric Background The only way humans can obtain fuel is from foods we eat with 3 macronutrients: Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fat. Macronutrients are compounds that we need on a large scale. Micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) are compounds that we need on a smaller scale (milligrams versus grams). In the ancient times, there was no knowledge of calories and people would eat whatever food was available. There was no need or necessity to know exactly how many calories, grams of protein or milligrams of certain vitamins each crop, animal or insect had. Somehow, our ancestors managed to fuel their bodies intuitively. Our food-intake and energy-needs do not always coincide. For example, we may have lots of food, but no energy needs. Or we may need lots of energy but there is no food in sight! How can we learn to trust our taste buds and appetite centers? This task requires us to get back in touch with food and its nourishing powers. For now, we still rely on the information we have at hand – nutrition labels.
If you look at food packages and scan through the nutrition panel, you may find the first number being the amount of calories in a serving or in the pack. Theoretically this means that a particular food has a certain amount of the potential energy measured as heat that food generates when eaten. Antoine Lavosier (1743–1794) may have been the first to directly connect digestion with an increased heat production and oxygen consumption. It was in the late 1700s when a Scottish physician, physicist, and chemist Joseph Black (16 April 1728 – 6 December 1799) recognized the distinction between heat and temperature and set the first steps in the future developments of the science of calorimetry.
The word calorimetry is derived from the Latin word “calor”, meaning heat. So, calories are a measure of heat. Specifically, a calorie is the amount of energy, or heat, it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). However, in every day life we are used to a different reference where one food calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram (or 1,000 grams, or 1 liter, or 2.2 pounds) of liquid water by 1° Celsius. Therefore, a food calorie is 1,000 times as great as a standard calorie. Either kcal (kilocalorie) or cal (calorie) can be used interchangeably, which is incorrect, but easier to understand.
In the physical sciences a common unit of energy used is a joule, which can also be applied to food. One calorie is equal to 4.184 joules. Even though we tend to associate calories with food, they apply to anything containing energy. For example, a gallon (about 4 liters) of gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories. Of course, you can't feed your car with a few boxes of chocolate bars, and you can't live on gasoline either, but everything and everybody needs energy. It's like they say it: “Different strokes for different folks.”
How do we now know the amount of energy each burger, a glass of juice, a piece of cashew has?
The first system for giving energy values to the macronutrients was described by US chemist Dr. Wilbur Olin Atwater in 1899 which contributed most to the emerging science of human nutrition and exercise. Atwater developed the original method used to determine the number of kcals in a given food by directly measuring the energy it produced. The food was placed in a sealed container surrounded by water - an apparatus known as a bomb calorimeter – then was completely burned and the resulting rise in water temperature was measured. Later this was named the Atwater system which allowed to quantify the dynamics of energy metabolism, directly measure the balance between food intake and energy output, and evaluate the effects of diet and muscular activity on metabolism. The Atwater system provided the average values of:
Today scientists use different types of such devices. Scanning calorimeters, isothermal microcalorimeters, titration calorimeters and accelerated rate calorimeters are among the most common types. A simple calorimeter just consists of a thermometer attached to a metal container full of water suspended above a combustion chamber.
This means that if you were to pour your 350-calorie shake into a dish, set it on fire and get it to burn completely, the reaction would produce 350 kilocalories. You can determine this for yourself by burning a piece of bread, for example, underneath a container of 100ml of water. Record the weight of the product before (W1) and after (W2) burning. Then, calculate the difference: W1 -W2 = W3. This is the amount of energy expended. Next, record the temperature of the water when the bread is lit (T1) and again when it has burned out (T2). The relationship between the amount of burnt toast (T2 – T1 = T3) and the temperature increase (W3) will reflect the caloric value of toast per unit of weight. Unless you have constant access to a calculator, figuring out the caloric value of foods for yourself is going to be, well, a bit difficult and time consuming. Fortunately, nowadays you don’t have to go through all these steps just to find out what exactly you are eating or drinking.
By law, the manufacturers of foods are required to place nutrition panels on the packaging to tell you how many calories, grams of each nutrient, and many other constituents are in one serving size. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) currently dictates what information is presented on food labels. However, the number of calories is not determined directly by burning the foods, but is based on an indirect estimation made using the Atwater system by adding up the calories provided by the energy-containing nutrients: protein, carbohydrate, fat and alcohol. You may even see caloric values on the menus of some restaurants, and in fast food stores.
Here is a little problem with this. A human digestive system is not a machine, you are not a bomb calorimeter and the body fat that creeps on doesn't have a sensor to the heat generated.
The energy yield of a foodstuff in the body is equal to that obtained in a bomb calorimeter only when the metabolic end products are the same as those obtained by combustion. However, the values given on food labels are not determined this way, because it overestimates the amount of energy that the human digestive system can extract. Moreover, not all food energy eaten is actually resorbed by the body. Thus, each gram of protein liberates 5.65 kcal (23.64 kJ) in a calorimeter when the nitrogen is oxidized to the dioxide, however only 4.4 kcal (18.4 kJ) is available for the human body to use. The reason for this small difference between gross energy from a calorimeter and net evergy available for metabolic reactions is the efficiency of digestion and absorption. While these are quite efficient in most healthy people, they are not 100% accurate and small amounts of nutrients are lost in the faeces. We can say that metabolism of protein is 92% efficient, while that for fat is about 95% and for carbohydrates is 99%. Turns out that some nitrogen (a compound in protein) is excreted as urea (which has a heat of combustion equal to the ‘missing’ 1.25 kcal or 5.23 kJ). Similarly, gross energy for carbohydrates is 4.1 kcal (17 kJ) giving you 4 kcal (16 kJ) per gram, and fat is 9.1 kcal (39 kJ) vs. 9 kcal (37 kJ) for gross and net respectively. Burn Calories While You Eat
It has long been known that when you put food inside your stomach, you get a boost of energy. And while eating fuels your system, it also burns some of it in the heat of digestion. After each meal, your metabolism goes up soon after you start eating and peaks two to three hours later as your body needs to do a tough job - to process the nutrients you supplied, digest them, metabolise and deliver to the needing tissues. This entire process requires so many actions that describing them in detail would take thousands of pages just to cover the basics. In short, turning food into energy creates heat and burns calories. So, eating itself is thermogenic. Each spoonful of caloric energy boosts your metabolism through the action on hormones, enzymes, and engagement of all body systems.
Later in the 20th century it was discovered that there is an increase in energy expenditure after eating and this varies depending on the composition of the meal. Originally this phenomenon was known as the Specific Dynamic Action (SDA) of food, but now it is more commonly referred to as the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) which represents the energy required for the digestion, absorption, transport, metabolism and storage of all the foods you eat. A general guideline used by some to calculate the TEF you eat is to take your total calorie consumption and multiply that by 10% to get the total get the number of calories. So, if you eat 100 calories, you can spend up to a quarter of these just to digest the food.
Nutritionists, however, are well aware that our bodies don't incinerate all food similarly. Your overall TEF can range between 2-3 % and up to 25-30 %, depending on the size of the meal and the types of foods eaten. Ok, common sense tells us that larger meals tend to have greater TEF than smaller portions. If you eat a meal worth of 500 kcal, you will burn 50 kcal in digestion; a 1000 kcal feast will nuke a whooping 100 kcal. So, eating bigger meals and eating them more often is much better for burning calories and losing weight, at least in theory. Of course, if you eat for two (people) you should exercise for four to balance 'calories in' and 'calories out'. But recent discoveries about the TEF are especially interesting. A few studies tested the thermogenic responses to isoenergetic meals (a nerdy term scientists like to use when they talk about identical caloric content). What was found is that there is more to macro-nutrients than previously thought. A Calorie Is Not A Calorie... and A Nutrient Is Not A Nutrient.
Research into energy values of food is ongoing and is constantly changing our understanding about different types of nutrients. Just looking at the calories in foods as a source of energy is misleading because the body may derive slightly different amounts of energy from different nutrients.
Let's recap some old news first. I am sure you have heard a saying that a “calorie is not a calorie”. It is true in two ways. First, some of the foods you eat are better used for energy (complex carbohydrates), others are more likely to be stored as fat (simple carbohydrates and fats), while others yet are best used for building new cells and tissues (proteins and essential fatty acids). Second, depending on what you eat you may either speed up metabolism, satisfy hunger and get real-time energy or you may end up packing up calories in certain storage compartments, feel sleepy while remaining hungry even if you stomach is full. Each calorie you get from fat is not digested and metabolised the same way as a calorie derived from carbohydrate or protein. This is because your body, being a smart machine, uses and stores all nutrients differently. In other words, consuming 1000 calories from corn flakes may not have the same overall effect on metabolism as consuming 200 calories from whole grains, 200 calories from legumes, 200 calories from nuts and another 400 from lean poultry and fish. Even though the caloric value of both options is identical, the body doesn't react similarly. In fact, the cells in the body understand the language of nutrients a lot better than the language of calories.
We have been told thousands of times that what matters is not how many calories you eat, but where these calories come from. You can burn more calories without depriving yourself of your favourite foods, you just need to learn how to combine the foods and in what proportions. If you eat the 'normal' usual mixture of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates and fats, your BMR will get a spike of around 10% of the food’s energy content.
But there is a lot more to the story and instead of repeating the old mantra that a “calorie is not a calorie”, it may be more correct to say that a “nutrient is not a nutrient”. It appears that not all amino acids, fats or carbohydrates have the same energy value as their chemical analysis in the test tube might indicate. Plus, there is a lot more to be said about processing methods. Typically, the more processed or refined a food is, the more calories it provides. Cooking and processing of foods pulls apart proteins, fats, fibre from each other, and sometimes even completely separates these and removes the complex interaction of macromolecules from the original piece. Because processing or pre-cooking is similar to pre-digesting, the first step of breaking down macronutrients into simpler compounds is already done. This results in more energy accessible for quick digestion and absorption, and causes quicker, higher rises in blood sugar. Processed foods which are soft, refined or pre-cooked take very little time for absorption and raise blood sugar levels faster than more textured, chewy, crunchy, fibrous foods. It’s really no wonder that these foods are turned into sugar so efficiently within minutes of being in our bodies.
In a study led by Kyoko Oka at Kyushu University in Japan, investigators fed one group of rats a usual hard food pellets and gave another group a soft version of the same food with same amount of nutriets. After 22 weeks, the rats on the soft diet were obese and had more abdominal fat. This is the most dangerous kind known as omentum fat which is thought to cause cardiovascular diseases and metabolic imbalances. Humans, just as rats, are facing the same dilemma. Another study at the University of Tokyo surveyed 454 women. The findings showed that those who ate the hardest foods were slimmer than the soft-food dieters.
If you have blood sugar control concerns, such as hypoglycaemia, Insulin resistance or Diabetes, you can benefit from eating hard whole foods rich in fiber. For example, Quick Oatmeal, Refried Beans or Minute Rice may be very easy to prepare and they fit easy in our busy living schedules. But look at what you are eating – the grains have been pre-cooked and then dried back again into its “original” state. They may look like “whole grains”, but our digestive systems can care less about the looks. All the enzymes know is how to act once they get the signal from foods. Now, Quick Oats act more like a simple sugars than a starch and have a lot more energy which can be extracted, used and deposited in various places.
You’ll find it much easier to reduce your fat levels if you consume plenty of foods with a higher Thermic Effect. Now, which foods burn more calories?
Heat Of Calories: Thermic Effect of Food
How much energy is needed for your body to make sense of everything you eat varies.
Carbohydrates: TEF is 5-30%.
You will always need at least some carbohydrate intake to keep your body moving and your metabolism roaring. Carbohydrates provide your body with the energy needed so that you can get the workout you need. They are energy source for your muscles, and without some carbs, you won’t be able to get in the type of workout you need to build muscle.
Carbohydrates are found in sugars, grains, fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, dairy and and give you immediate energy providing four calories per gram. This doesn't mean that 100 grams of cooked pasta will give you 100 grams of carbohydrates. In fact, only around 25 grams. But 100 grams of sugar will give you 100 grams of carbohydrates. So, you need figure out the specific content of this nutrient in each food: if you eat a small hard 25-gram candy made of plain sugar (a tiny spoon size), your body will actually get 90 calories spending 10 on digestion. Load up on whole-grain pasta which weighs 6 times the amount, and you will get the same amount of energy and waste up to 20 calories in metabolic work. Inspired to ditch the junk food? Now let's talk about the diet of our ancestors.
You've heard that fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and grains are healthier than candy, sodas and pastries. Why? First, these outstanding additions are loaded with vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants. Second, fibrous fruits and vegetables have a TEF of about 20%. Although all carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram and are broken down by the body into sugars or ‘glucose’, some are metabolised faster than others and thus have a lower TEF. These include simple sugars and are known as foods with a high Glycaemic Index (GI). On the other hand, foods containing complex carbohydrates from whole grains rich in fiber take a lot longer to be digested and absorbed and more nutrient value is excreted.
The main reason here is the presence of fiber. Humans don’t derive any calories from fiber, since we lack the enzymes necessary to break it down like animals do. Therefore, basically it is accepted that fiber has a caloric value of 1.5-2 kcal/gram instead of 4 kcal. However, strictly speaking, this is not entirely true because your lower intestine may break down fiber to Short-Chain Fatty Acids and use these for energy after re-absoribing by the micro-organisms living in our gut. These fats may give you up to 9 kcal per each gram, so it can be said that fiber actually has twice the calories of carbs. But unless your fiber intake is extremely high and you have a lot of bacteria in your gut, you can ignore the caloric content of fiber. Since a fiber intake for most people these days probably doesn’t top 25 grams/day, that’s only 50 calories total per day at the most, which is a negligeable amount often ignored entirely. Vegetarians, on the other hand, may eat massive portions of beans and grains with up to 200 grams of fiber per day which would add 300 - 400 calories – quite significant.
Besides burning more calories than most other foods, veggies also help in the digestive process by stimulating various enzymes needed for proper nutrient absorption. This is why these, as well as previously mentioned legumes, whole grains, pulses, fruit, berries may actually provide less energy than listed on the nutrition panel. Candy, sodas, pastries and other junk foods usually are poor sources of nutrients and sometimes we refer to these foods as having "empty calories." This means the foods have lots of calories with little or no nutrition. Get a good portion of vegetable in at least 2-3 of your 6 daily meals and kiss your unsatisfied appetite and cellulite “good-bye”.
Fats: TEF is 0-5%.
Let’s be clear: we need fat in our diet. It may be the least appealing nutrient from a dieter's view, and that's understandable. As the most concentrated source of energy, it provides 9 calories per gram of fat compared with 4 calories per gram for protein and carbohydrates. Keeping certain levels of fats in your diet is necessary, but fats tend to be high in calories and have a low thermic effect. Fat has the lowest TEF and requires the least amount of energy to be digested. But if you eat fat, it may take hours before the fatty acids reach the blood stream, so they may keep your satiety levels up for many hours. The low-digesting fat lowers the Glycemic Index of any food you eat, doesn't raise blood sugar levels and even limits the rise of the fat-storing hormone Insulin you normally get from eating carbs or protein. In other words, eating fat is the only known natural way to curb your hunger and maintain blood sugar levels for many hours longer. Plus, eating fat has a great hormonal effect and has shown to actually boost your resting metabolism.
When chosen properly, fat can be your best ally in the war on fat, or body fat to be precise. Here comes the golden rule - it is not the quantity, but the quality of fat that really matters. Briefly, fats you eat can be classified as Saturated, Unsaturated and Trans Fatty Acids.
Saturated fats are found and derived from animal products such as meat, dairy and eggs and are also found in some plant-based sources such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils. They are solid at room temperature and melt when heated. Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated Fats are two types of Unsaturated fatty acids derived from vegetables and plants. These are liquid at room temperature but begin to solidify at cold temperatures. You can find these in olives, olive oil, nuts, peanut oil, canola oil , avocados, safflower, sesame, corn, cottonseed and soybean oils. Trans Fats are actually Unsaturated Fats which go through hydrogenation, the chemical process that changes liquid oils into solid fats. They are found in commercial cakes, shortenings, spreads, and in some of the convenience foods.
How do you tell a good fat from a bad one? Apart from Trans Fats which are probably the worst man-made foods ever created, there are no good fats and no bad fats. You need all of them, some more than others. The best fats come from Unsaturated Essential Fatty Acids. Animal studies show that Polyunsaturated, Mono-unsaturated and Saturated Fatty Acids are broken down differently in the body and may not be used in the same way. Some fats, like Polyunsaturated Fats (especially Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oils), may be more easily used up during exercise than fats from other animal sources. This suggests that saturated fat may be more likely to go into and stay in fat cells.
Proteins: TEF is 30%.
Protein is probably the most complex macro-nutrient. The reason protein demands so much energy and has such a high metabolic cost can be found in all the hormones, enzymes and other metabolites involved in processing the amino acids.
Protein is found in all animal products, including red meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, fish, and also to a lesser degree in vegetable sources of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Same as for carbohydrates, each gram of protein has 4 calories as well. By similar mechanism, the complete weight of protein-rich food is not exactly the same as the number of protein grams it contains. For example, 100 grams of lean fish translates only into around 25 grams of protein, while 100 grams of pure protein powder may give you all 100.
Animal sources of protein are "complete proteins." That means that each protein found in an animal product contains each of the nine essential amino acids. Plant proteins are called "incomplete proteins." Each plant protein is missing at least one of the nine essential amino acids. However, every amino acid is found in some type of plant, so you can combine different plant proteins to get all of the amino acids you need. For example, combining legumes and grains is a great way to balance the missing amino acids and get the complete protein profile from plant foods. Soy beans are the one exception. They are the only known plant food which contains complete protein and has one of the best protein digestibilities among all protein sources with little or no fat and cholesterol.
High protein foods are essential for muscle gain and fat loss. Think of these foods as your metabolic stimulators. They not only nuke a lot of calories just by being present in the tummy, but also have the highest TEF of 30%, burn more calories than any other nutrient, slow down the release of carbs and fats into your bloodstream, help maintain and build metabolically hungry muscles and keep your body lean and strong. Plus, certain amino acids, such as Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine and Arginine may be used directly by the body cells while Glutamine is the construction material for immune cells. To ensure you are well-protected, keep growing new cells and maintain health, eat protein with every meal and snack, at least 1 gram of protein per kilo of body weight spreading it evenly throughout the day.
When it comes to processing and cooking, the rule of 'extra energy' applies here as well. For example, in the late 1990s, Pieter Evenepoel, now at the University Hospital Leuven, found that cooking protein foods increases the caloric value of available energy – only 50% of a raw egg is completely digested compared with 90% of a cooked egg. A steak may provide more calories per serving if cooked well done than if served medium-rare or raw. This also means that a liquid protein shake is a terrific energy tank – especially if you are trying to bulk up. But if you want to lose weight, eat fresh natural least processed foods (as always).
Recommendations for Thermogenic Eating Now that you know pretty much all the basics about calories and foods, the next step is figure out how much of what you need. While we'll leave this subject for another discussion, here are a few tips you can use to boost your metabolism even further and – very important – burn more calories while you eat.
Lesson number one - if you want to boost your metabolism, shrink your fat cells, have plenty of energy to build additional muscle mass, you gotta eat more. Period. You mind, hormones, neurochemicals, blood cells, immune cells, enzymes constantly cry for nourishment. This is why you need to eat around the clock. Changing your eating patterns and eating more frequently can rev up metabolism and energy levels, give you the opportunity to enjoy delicious meals all day long and lose weight at the same time. When you eat less, exercising is not as enjoyable as you may not have enough energy to move.
You need all nutrients. A sound diet should not only be varied and provide adequate nutrients throughout each day, it should be flexible and adaptable depending on what you like, what you have, and how you feel on particular day. For example, if it is your workout day, your body is under increased stress and you need to eat more of protein, carbohydrates, certain vitamins, minerals and amino acids. This is, of course, if you strive for proper recuperation and getting some kind of positive results for all the hard work in the gym. Same thing applies if you are under emotional stress, or maybe you got sick. Then, ask yourself what you want to achieve with each meal and snack. If you need quick energy, eat soft easily digestible foods with least amount of fiber and fat. If you need to curb your sweet tooth on a weight-loss diet, you can try adding bran and germ from grains to unprocessed dairy such as cottage cheese with some fruit. As far as portion size goes, a balanced diet should deliver a roughly equal amount of protein and carbs for most meals. Eat 6 times per day to supply your body with critical nutrients, especially the most metabolically efficient amino acids needed for driving muscle growth and complex carbs for fueling the energy tank. While food is certainly not the only consideration in boosting health, it definitely is a large chunk of solution.
That's right. If you want to boost your metabolism and lose weight, snack between meals! Snacking achieves two things. First, digestion of food is a labor-intensive process for your body. It requires energy and burns additional calories. Second, it keeps telling your body that there is plenty of food around and there is no need to slow down the metabolic factory in fear of starvation. Third, snacking ensures that your blood sugar levels are levelled. Because of this, you are less hungry before big meals and have more control over the type and amount of food you eat. This naturally rules out “binge eating.”
The myth that skipping meals decreases your total calorie level and helps you to lose weight is not true. When people skip meals or decrease their calories significantly (< 1000 calories/day), they actually decrease their metabolism. Their bodies go into starvation mode where all systems try to compensate for the miniature amounts of calories. Your metabolic rate can actually decrease as much as 10 - 15% if you don't eat enough, or as much as your tissues require! This forces your body to hold on to the fat and burn lean muscle instead. Always eat at least 3 meals and avoid dipping below 1000 calories a day.
Having said that, you need to be very particular about the types of food you snack on. Throughout the day focus on foods rich in protein and essential fat, low in simple sugars and high in fibre.
Certain spices can give your weight loss an added zing. Ginger, cloves, cayenne, coriander, bay leaves and dry mustard have all demonstrated a thermogenic, or fat-burning, effect, thus raising metabolism. Another positive effect of consuming hot herbs is that they stimulate thirst, so you'll drink more (we're talking ice water, not margaritas). Water for your body is like oil for your car. You need water for all bodily processes, including digestion, waste excretion, circulation and even breathing. Dehydration can lead to sugar cravings, fatigue, and an ill temper marked by edginess and cloudy thinking. As well, dehydration slows down fat-burning significantly and prevents the muscles from taking advantage of the carbs you're eating.
The usual recommendation is to drink 64 ounces (eight cups) of water daily, and more when you exercise--but the more ice-cold water you drink, the more calories you burn. There are reports that drinking a glass of cold water can burn off an additional 9.25 calories as compared to room-temperature water.
Try sprinkling some cinnamon on your next non-fat latte. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have shown that just a quarter of a teaspoon to one teaspoon of cinnamon taken with food can help boost metabolism twenty-fold. This extraordinary spice makes fat cells much more responsive to Insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. Better yet, make that latte iced.
Fiber-rich foods are termed sometimes as 'negative calorie foods' because they burn more calories than they provide, at least in theory. Eat plenty of vegetables, particularly fibrous green leafy vegetables, two pieces of fruit and at least 6 servings of complex carbohydrates from whole grains with bran and germ best combined with the ultimate fiber sources – beans and legumes. A combination of the last two will not only heat up your metabolic rate, but will provide an additional protein boost because grains and legumes have complimentary amino acids which turn into complete protein when eaten at the same time.
While fibre-rich foods are important, don’t overeat these foods in your diet. You still need the essentials – carbs, proteins and fats to keep your system in optimal healthy balance.
It is virtually impossible to gain weight using a diet that is very high in foods with a high Thermic Effect. Rely more heavily on these types of foods for fat loss, but keep all nutrients in place for weight gain and adding more muscle. This way you will keep your body in the positive energy balance allowing for growth.
Exercise – food hates it when you move.
Of course, you must stimulate that growth by exercise. Training without good planning and nutritional support for building muscle mass is like bringing a bunch of construction workers to their working site without tools and bricks for putting together a building. If you start to eat more and train less, as probably happens in the off season and during holidays, you will grow. Specifically, you put yourself in a true anabolic state, grow muscles, improve even already almost perfect body composition, burn whatever little bits of fat cells you have around your belly button, and take your training above and beyond the expectations.
Sounds surreal, but researchers confirm that it is not. A simple increase in calories has shown to enhance the famous anabolic trio - Growth Hormone, Testosterone, and Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). On the flip side, when you start your cut-up season and starve yourself on another diet, the levels of these hormones drop and catabolism takes off.
A study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that the Thermic Effect of a meal is 50% greater in men who train with weights compared with men who are sedentary.
Also, researchers from the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Nevada studied the effects of weight training on the Thermic Effect of Food. After they measured the metabolic rate of subjects who ate a high-carbohydrate meal containing 660 calories prior bout of weight training they found that the Thermic Effect or the energy expenditure was greater when compared to a different group of subjects who did not exercise but ate the same diet. In fact, the Thermic Effect of Food was 73% greater after the weight training trial than in the control trial. The researchers think part of this response is due to the energy cost of glycogen synthesis. If you train with weights on a regular basis you'll burn off more of the calories you eat.
Another investigation from Washington University School of Medicine also shows that the calories in a meal high in fat or sugar are less likely to be stored as fat if you eat them after exercise. The study shows that 60 minutes of exercise helps to "divert" fat and sugar into muscle, rather than fat tissue. This may be possibly because exercise increases the activity of enzymes responsible for transporting sugar and fat into your muscles.
Of course, this doesn't mean that exercise gives you the freedom to eat all you want. The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you get from your diet. The key to building lean mass is training, proper nutrient supply and sufficient recovery. If you simply replace the extra energy you've expended during exercise with additional calories from your diet, then your weight won't change, but you may change your body composition by manipulating with nutrients.
The very basics of a good healthy diet are described exceptionally well by Dave Draper, my mentor, a bodybuilder in heart and mind:
“Eat, eat and eat some more. Eat from breakfast till lights out, especially pre- and post-workout drinks made from a top quality protein powder (whey and casein) with a banana and some peanut butter added in regular or reduced-fat milk. The blended drink makes a perfect breakfast or mid-day meal as well. Shoot for a menu of high-protein and medium-fat foods and good carbs offering substantial nutritional value (live foods in the form of fruits and vegetables, and high-protein dairy). Avoid junk foods, which include greasy fried foods, and high-glycemic snacks (candy, pop, cookies) and salty goodies like chips of most varieties...” (If you want to read more, you can always go to Dave's website www.DaveDraper.com).
References:
Denzer, C.M., & Young, J.C. (2003). The effect of resistance exercise on the thermic effect of food. International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 13, 396-402. Greiwe, J.S., Holloszy, J.O., & Semenkovich, C.F. (2000). Exercise induces lipoprotein lipase and GLUT-4 protein in muscle independent of adrenergic-receptor signaling. Journal of Applied Physiology, 89, 176-181. Thyfault JP, Richmond SR, Carper MJ, Potteiger JA, Hulver MW. (2004). Postprandial metabolism in resistance-trained versus sedentary males. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 36, 709-716.
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