Category: Lifestyle

  • How To Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle Part 1

    How To Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle Part 1

    Have you ever tried to lose body fat with initial success but just struggle to keep the weight off long term? In this 2 part article we will discuss the physiological differences in losing body fat quickly, and slowly and what that means in regards to our individual goals. First of all, if you have not yet read the article on our website titled “How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet Plan” you should quickly read that before continuing to this one.

    When we think of what it means to “lose weight” most of us have the desired goal of losing body fat while keeping, if not increasing, our muscle mass. With this in mind, if we were to eat too few calories (more than 500 calories under maintenance intake), our bodies will begin to take energy from not only our fat stores, but our force producing components of our muscles as well.

    Because our bodies are constantly adapting to the stress of everyday life, being too low on calorie intake for an extended period of time (longer than 1 week) will cause our bodies to lower our energy consumption throughout the day in an effort to save energy; this can lead to metabolic syndrome – a condition which increases our risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome also exhibits insulin resistance and can cause our bodies to make every effort possible to conserve energy and preserve fat stores – leading to very “stubborn” areas of body fat (low back, low abs, and love handles) that can be increasingly difficult to get rid of as time goes on. This may sound contradictory but the most important aspect of losing weight is to make sure you are eating enough!

    The strategy we should take to make sure we are eating enough and avoiding these negative health complications while preserving muscle mass and losing body fat is to take our calorie deficit nice and slow – no more than 500 calories below our BMR. Once we know our BMR, we can use the protein recommendations from the “How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)” and “Differences in Losing Body Weight With and Without Exercise” articles to find how much protein we should be eating to support our resistance training (at least 2.2grams protein per kg of body weight – 180lb or 81.6kg person would eat at least 180g protein per day). There has been recently published scientific data exhibiting a dose response relationship with protein (the more protein we eat, the more strength gains we get), however the full extent to the benefit of having more carbohydrates vs. protein under calorie restrictions requires further investigation. We will discuss this more in depth in future articles which will investigate nutrient intake for muscle growth – stay tuned for that but for now we should aim for at least 2.2g/kg body mass to lose body fat and keep muscle.

    Part 2 of this article will discuss how to implement the information discussed above into your own diet plan created to meet your unique and individual goals.

    References:
    – Wilkinson, 2016
    – Helms, 2022
    – Antonio, 2018
    – MacNaughton, 2016

  • How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet

    How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet

    Have you ever set out on a fitness journey with one of your friends only to find that they are making more progress than you when you’re both doing the same thing? In this article we will discuss how your diet plan should be specifically tailored to you and your individual goals – and how your strategies may differ from that of others.

    At this point in time it is common knowledge that in order to lose body fat we need to be consuming less energy (food) than we are using throughout the day for daily activities (brushing your teeth, walking to your parked car, exercising, etc…). When this happens, we begin to use the energy we have stored in our bodies (body fat). This line of thinking could then lead us to believe that more is better, and that the fewer calories we take in, the more fat we will lose. This is true only in regards to short-term (1-2 weeks) fat loss but will not provide us with the desired results long term and can have adverse health effects in regards to our quality of life. This will be discussed further in the following article.

    It is easy to find an estimate of how many calories we should eat in a day to maintain our current body weight but since these numbers are only estimates it will take some guess and check work initially to get dialed in. The first step in this process is to find our basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is our energy expenditure estimate for a day. There are many online calculators you can use but we can also use the Harris Benedict Equation that these calculators are derived from:
    Men: BMR = 13.397W + 4.799H – 5.677A + 88.362
    Women: BMR = 9.247W + 3.098H – 4.330A + 447.593
    Where W = weight in kg, H = height in cm, and A = age in years

    For example, a 180lb, 5’11, 27 year old male would burn roughly 1,814 calories throughout the day without physical activity. To add physical activity into our daily energy expenditure, we will multiply this number (1,814) by our “activity factor”. If I were a sedentary individual (little or no exercise) I would multiply this number by 1.2, meaning I burn 2,176 calories throughout the day living a “sedentary lifestyle”. This multiplication changes as your activity level increases and is as follows:
    – Sedentary
    – x1.2 = 2,176 calories/day
    – Lightly active (light exercise/sports 2-3 days/week)
    – x1.375 = 2,494 calories/day
    – Moderately active (exercise/sports 3-5 days/week)
    – X1.55 = 2,811 calories/day
    – Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week)
    – x1.725 = 3,174 calories/ day
    – Extra Active (Physically demanding manual labor jobs, i.e. construction or landscaping work)
    – x1.9 = 3,446 calories/ day

    Once we have our BMR, we can then aim to eat less calories than our given number to lose weight. We can also utilize the information regarding protein intake discussed in the “How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)” and “Differences in Losing Body Weight With and Without Exercise” articles posted on our website to help us keep our muscle mass throughout this process. Once our protein requirements have been met and we are ensuring optimal fat intake, we can then fill in the rest of our calories with carbohydrates. We should aim to eat no fewer than 500 calories less than our BMR as this will help us preserve muscle mass and lose body fat in a way that will not cause adverse health effects.

    Stay tuned for the next article where we will discuss various strategies we can implement to ensure that the weight we are losing is fat and not muscle in a safe and effective way. If you are someone looking to begin their fitness journey and are unsure where to start, give us a call as we have many qualified professionals eager to help you take the first step!

    References:
    – Wilkinson, 2016
    – Helms, 2022
    – Antonio, 2018

  • Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition Strategies for Strength Training

    If you are someone who frequently engages in strength training, the amount of protein you eat each day plays a major role in how much progress we can make in a specified amount of time. In this article we will discuss how much protein we should eat to make sure we are gaining strength as fast as possible. To take that a step further, we will also discuss how managing when we eat our protein surrounding our training time can help us improve even more!

    For those of us who engage in regular strength training, we should aim to eat a minimum of 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass (about 150g for a 150lb person). This amount has been scientifically proven to provide our bodies with more protein than we can break down during weight training. The most important factor regarding protein intake is the total amount we eat each day. Once we ensure we are eating enough to repair our muscles, we can then improve these results by eating more protein before and after our training sessions.

    If we were to consume, for example, 1 scoop of whey protein (~25 grams of protein) 1 hour before we begin training, we will actually begin recovering from our workout after the first rep of the first set, and so on – we don’t have to wait to recover until afterwards if we can get out in front of it. After each rep of our training sessions, our bodies quickly adapt by increasing the amount of amino acids (digested protein) our muscle cells can intake and use to repair. This increased nutrient absorption will continue to increase as we cause more cellular disruption to our muscle cells throughout the duration of our training sessions. Having protein in our systems before training will help improve our recovery but we can also get more out of our training sessions by including carbohydrates into our pre workout “meal”.

    Consuming carbohydrates with protein before training puts us into what we call the “fed state”. It has been scientifically proven that training in the “fed state” will increase our time to fatigue, increase our power output and force production in our muscles, and improve recovery following exercise – yes this is all from eating before training! One important consideration to make with a pre-workout meal is that larger meals take longer to digest – we should do our best to give our bodies enough time to digest and begin circulating these nutrients throughout our bloodstream to get into this “fed state” (training too soon will result in stomach cramps). Some examples would be 1 scoop of whey protein or 230g scrambled liquid egg whites (8 egg whites from actual eggs) with ~33g of carbohydrates (this would be equivalent to 0.5 cups of oats or a gomacro bar) ~1 hour before training – and remember, with larger meals we should give ourselves more time for digestion.

    If you are someone who trains first thing in the morning and do not have 1 hour before training we may not be able to train in the “fed state” but supplementing this pre workout meal with some branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) can provide a similar – but not the same – benefit as a pre workout meal. BCAA’s are just proteins already in the digested state so all your body has to do is quickly absorb them (in about 15-25 minutes). This way we can still begin the recovery process during our training – we just won’t have the increased force production and time to fatigue that we do when eating carbohydrates with our pre workout meal. Something important to note about BCAA’s is that they are ONLY effective when consumed on an empty stomach, without amino acids circulating in our bloodstream. If we were to take BCAA’s with a meal, we would just pee them out as our body will prefer to use digested protein sources.

    In order to maximize our strength gains, we need to ensure we are taking full advantage of our increased nutrient absorption during this “anabolic window” following training. Nutrient absorption remains elevated for ~3 hours following a hard training session so getting a well balanced meal in this time consisting of high quality fat sources, carbohydrates, and protein is of utmost importance. The meal should consist of at least 40-45g of protein (5-6 Oz. chicken breast or 8-9 Oz. Cod) with 50-60g carbohydrates (200-220g of dry brown rice or 7-8 Oz. dry Jasmine Rice). The oils we use when preparing our food will provide us with adequate fat consumption – if it is coming from a good source (cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil, for example) this will help our bodies with hormone regulation as optimal insulin and testosterone secretion will help our bodies recover and mobilize fat stores to be used as energy.

    If you are an individual who is very active throughout the day or someone who trains multiple times in one day, the carbohydrate recommendation post-workout will increase to 60-90g as we can utilize the anabolic window to quickly resynthesize our glycogen stores (energy stores within a muscle) and be energized and ready to go before the next time we are active later in the day. For the rest of us, the previous recommendation (50-60g carbs) will be sufficient as our bodies have no trouble resynthesizing these glycogen stores over a 24-hour time span with evenly distributed food intake throughout the day.

    The last thing we will touch on is one more way to utilize the “anabolic window”. Since this window is open for almost 3 hours, and we know that 1 scoop of whey protein begins absorption after 1 hour, then we can come to the conclusion that if we drink a whey protein shake immediately following our training session, we will then be able to get 2 “meals” (if you can call a shake a meal) in before our increased nutrient absorption fully dissipates.

    The bottom line is that we need to ensure we are getting adequate protein (2.2g/kg body mass) throughout the day in order for any of this “meal timing” to actually provide us with any additional benefit. If you are someone who is looking to improve their strength, body composition, or get on a nutrition plan to help you reach your individual goals, then give PTS a call as we have many qualified professionals who are eager to get to work with you!

    References:

    – Helms, 2015
    – Mcnaughten, 2016
    – Moore, 2009
    – Tang, 2009
    – Trommelan, 2019
    – Wilkonson, 2018

  • How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)

    How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)

    Have ever noticed that you aren’t as strong or as coordinated as you once were, you’re not alone. As we age, our bodies inevitably lose strength and coordination due to a physiological phenomenon called “sarcopenia”. Without physical activity we will always be losing muscle mass as our bodies adapt to meet the demands of our everyday lives. We lose on average 5-15% of our muscle mass between the ages of 20-50 which ramps up as we get older and begin to lose a massive 30-40% of our muscle mass between the ages of 50-80.

    A significant loss in muscle mass like this results in losses in functional ability (ability to perform everyday tasks like standing from a chair or brushing your teeth), and an increase in frailty, physical disability and risk of falls. Falls can significantly reduce life expectancy of older adults if an otherwise “healthy” person falls and breaks a hip, they may need hip surgery followed by lengthy physical therapy (sometimes upwards of 8-12 months) with no guarantee that their functional ability will be able to return to what it was previously and may even be left with a physical disability depending on the severity of the injury.

    All of these possible negative health outcomes due to physical inactivity can be avoided if we just ensure we do what we can to prevent sarcopenia. In order for our muscles to become stronger – and avoid losing muscle mass – we can engage in any type of resisted physical activity. This can come in many different forms, from walking the neighborhood with hand and ankle weights to resistance training in a gym using dumbbells and barbells (the most effective) to walking laps in a pool with chest high water or even just performing daily body weight exercises – anything that provides more difficulty and resistance than we normally experience throughout our daily lives. There are many activities we can incorporate into our lives to prevent sarcopenia but the most important factor to consider is that we must choose something that we enjoy doing in order to continue our progression for years to come.

    Engaging in regular resisted physical activity is one strategy we can use to prevent age-related loss of muscle mass. Another strategy we can implement is to make sure we are eating enough protein to repair our muscles from resistance training in order to improve our strength, not just prevent strength loss. One of the reasons older adults age ~80 and up lose muscle mass is because our bodies digest and absorb protein less efficiently as we age. For this reason, older adults aiming to prevent sarcopenia should aim to consume 1-1.3g protein per lb of body mass (150lb person should eat 150-200g protein per day). This is more similar to the protein recommendations for athletes as older adults need almost twice as much protein as younger adults to experience the same effect!

    Eating adequate protein through animal sources like meat can be difficult if we do not have enough time to cook all of our meals so in this case, we can meet our protein requirements by adding in some whey protein shakes throughout the day. Creatine can also be used as it has been shown to slow sarcopenia even with an inactive lifestyle but can have its effects improved with the addition of resistance training.

    Any type of resistance training will help prevent sarcopenia but the single most effective form of exercise to preserve and improve muscle mass is a safe and effective form of weight training with dumbbells, barbells and machines. Once you are certain progressive overload is being implemented to your resistance training program, we can completely largely reduce or even completely prevent sarcopenia from occurring and in turn, mitigate instances of falling, and improve our quality of life by reducing our risks of physical disability.

    If you are someone who isn’t as strong or as coordinated as you once were and want to make some changes, here at PTS we have many qualified professionals who are eager to help you reach your goals! Give us a call to find out more information on how to start getting an individualized program.

    References:
    – Jepsen, Ditte Beck et al. “Effect of whole-body vibration exercise in preventing falls and fractures: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” BMJ open vol. 7,12 e018342. 29 Dec. 2017, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018342.
    – Tromp, A., Pluijm, S., Smit, J., Deeg, D., Bouter, L., & Lips, P. (2001). Fall-risk screening test. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 54(8), 837-844. doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(01)00349-3
    – DEVRIES, MICHAELA & PHILLIPS, STUART. (2014). Creatine Supplementation during Resistance Training in Older Adults-A Meta-analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 46, 1194-1203. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000000220
    – Nowson, C., & O’connell, S. (2015). Protein Requirements and Recommendations for Older People: A Review. Nutrients, 7(8), 6874-6899. doi:10.3390/nu7085311

  • Differences in Losing Body Weight With and Without Resistance Exercise

    The most important aspect of any diet put into place with the goal of losing body fat is that we need to ensure we are implementing a “calorie deficit”. The term “calorie” or “caloric deficit” refers to the energy balance in our bodies throughout everyday life – being in a caloric deficit just means we are eating less calories than we are burning, so our bodies begin using other energy stores in our body (body fat, muscle glycogen, muscle proteins) to provide us with energy for daily living. While a caloric deficit is the primary determining factor in regards to weight loss, the macronutrient composition of our diet along with our daily physical activity will determine what body composition changes occur – that is, if we are losing fat or muscle.

    The three primary macronutrients we mostly refer to are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. For those who aim to lose body fat, it is imperative that we provide our body with what it needs to provide us with the desired body composition changes – i.e. losing body fat, not muscle. The goal of any fat loss program should be to improve physical health, regardless of body composition goals. A caloric deficit alone is not sufficient to elicit significant fat loss changes in a healthy way because when our bodies are receiving less energy than we are burning, we will begin to use energy from stores around your body (muscle protein, glycogen, and body fat). Losing muscle protein would result in a loss of strength and thus, we would be losing weight in an unhealthy way, whereas losing body weight primarily through the loss of body fat would result in us retaining as much strength as possible. The easiest way to lose body fat while retaining muscle mass and strength is to engage in frequent resistance training while eating sufficient protein.

    When engaging in frequent resistance training (2-6 times per week) our bodies will adapt to that stress by improving our strength through muscle size and force production but these improvements are primarily determined by the amount of protein we eat every day before and after we train. When resistance training, each rep of each set we are breaking down the force producing components of our muscle (this is one of the reasons we have better “performance” in terms of force production at the start of a workout compared to the end – by the end, more parts of the muscle are damaged and can no longer produce the same force). When we eat protein, our bodies use this digested protein in the form of amino acids to repair the damaged parts of our muscle from resistance training. For this reason, to lose body fat and avoid muscle loss, it is imperative that we ensure we are eating more protein during the day (~0.8g -1.5g protein per lb of body mass [150lb person would need 120 -225g of protein each day]) than we are breaking down during our training and everyday activities. Once we ensure we are training hard enough to retain our strength and eating enough protein to repair our muscles, it is reasonable for us to believe we should be able to retain all of our strength during a fat loss phase if not even gain strength throughout the process.

    If you are looking to lose body fat and improve body composition, one of PTS’s coaches can help.  Our coaches are experts at losing weight the healthy way to make sure you are getting lean and staying strong. Give us a call to find out more information as to how you can get on an individualized program.

  • Meet our featured partner, Leah Schmitt PT, DPT CFMT

    Meet our featured partner, Leah Schmitt PT, DPT CFMT

    Leah Schmitt is a Physical Therapist certified in Functional Manual Therapy and the president of Leah Schmitt Physical Therapy. Her practice emphasizes in hands on body work to achieve ultimate efficient functioning and to address pain and dysfunction. Leah is also certified in Functional Dry Needling and Pelvic floor therapy. She treats everything from neck and back pain, joint pain, migraines, foot/ankle issues, pelvic floor dysfunction or those who just want to perform better. Give her a call today to schedule at 312-278-7771!

     

  • Happy New Year from PTS!

    Happy New Year from PTS!

  • Check out our featured partner, Northstar Bison!

    Check out our featured partner, Northstar Bison!

    Finding high quality meat products can be challenging. We highly recommend Northstar Bison as a trusted source. Northstar is a family owned local farm located in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. They produce superior quality products that are organically raised with strict controls. Northstar meats are 100% grass fed & finished, raised as nature intended with non-GMO and soy free options as well as pastured and grass fed. They raise, harvest, and utilize every part of the animal. Plus, it’s all shipped straight to your door!

    Their Bison meat is:

    • 100% grass fed & finished, field harvested, & water rinsed
    • Non-GMO, organically raised, & minimally processed
    • Free of hormone & antibiotic, preservatives, soy, and corn

    They also have elk, beef, turkey, chicken, pork, lamb, goat, rabbit, raw cheese, pet products and more! Check them out here!

  • Bobby and Jessie at Mount of the Holy Cross!

    Bobby and Jessie at Mount of the Holy Cross!
  • Jessie and Bobby Hiking in Chamonix!

    Jessie and Bobby Hiking in Chamonix!