Matt Johnson, a professional trainer, is the fitness expert at DietsInReview.com, where he shares insight and guidance for staying fit and living a healthy, active life. DietsInReview.com also provides healthy recipes, weight loss tools, health news and more than 475 diet reviews.
Getting to know the Core
Many people struggle with the “core” and I feel that it is the most important part of the body. The core is the center of the body and a weak core can lead to several problems or injuries. The core consists of several different muscles that stabilize the spine and pelvis and run the entire length of the torso. These muscles stabilize the spine, pelvis, shoulder, and provide a solid foundation for movement in the extremities (arms and legs). The muscles that make up the “core” are Rectus Abdominis, Erector Spinae, Multifidus, Internal/External Obliques, Transverse Abdominis, Hip Flexors (which consist of several muscles as well), and the Glutes. Working these muscles daily (daily is ok) is the best answer to a weak core and to that flat stomach you’ve always wanted. Doing crunches alone will not flatten the stomach, a combination of cardio, crunches, and diet is the only way to achieve this goal. Training the muscles of the core corrects postural imbalances that can lead to injuries and the biggest benefit of core training is to develop functional fitness (fitness that is essential to both daily living and regular activities). A strong core is the only way to be!
This week on Fitness Rocks I have a great conversation with Dr. Kathleen Melanson from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Melanson is a nutritional expert with a special interest in sports nutrition. We talk about a range of interesting topics including carbohydrate loading, sports drinks, post-exercise meals, and dairy products. Check it out and send me your thoughts through email.
These videos are going to be my response to several people who have asked me to describe my own lifestyle - what do I eat and how do I workout?
This initial video is in the way of an introduction. I take you on a tour of my personal gym and share some of my thoughts on what the videos will try to accomplish.
The videos will only be available at the Fitness Rocks website and not through the RSS feed for the Fitness Rocks audio podcast. So, you’ll have to visit the website frequently to view new videos as they are produced.
Send me your comments through the contact page and let me know what topics you’d like to see.
This week on Fitness Rocks I have an interview with Dr. Eliza Chakravarty of Stanford Medical School about a paper she and her colleagues published in the Archives of Internal Medicine entitled Reduced Disability and Mortality Among Aging Runners.
An article in the July 17, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine compared low-fat, low-carb, and Mediterranean diets for their effectiveness at weight loss. I review the article and share the answers to some of my questions that lead author Dr. Iris Shai generously took the time to answer by email.
I’ve received a lot of emails about an article that appeared in the July 17, 2008 issue of the NEJM. The article reports on a two-year study comparing weight loss results between a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate diet, and the Mediterranean diet. I asked the lead author to do an interview and she agreed to answer some questions by email. I attached the questions I sent her to the end of this blog post. I have several additional questions, but I didn’t want to push my luck.
The study suffers from the same problem that most studies comparing weight loss diets suffer from: the researchers relied entirely on study subjects reporting what they were eating. This means that the data is suspect. The fact that there was “no statistical difference” between the amount of calories cut from the baseline diet by each group and no statistical difference between the amount of calories expended with exercise makes it curious as to how there was a difference between the groups regarding weight lost.
And, by the way, there was not a significant difference in weight lost between the low-carb diet and the Mediterranean diet.
I’ll go into more detail with my podcast discussion to be posted in a few days - podcast 107.
My questions to the lead author of the paper:
1. You mention that people in the low-carb group were advised to get most of their protein and fat from vegetable sources (page 231, first column under the heading “Low-Carbohydrate Diet”). I could not find a table in the paper or in the attached appendices that gives data on what foods people in any of the three groups actually ate. Did the people in the low-carb group eat most of their fat and protein from plants as opposed to animals?
2. If the people in the low-carb group did eat mostly a vegetarian diet, how is that different from a Mediterranean diet? Is it only the olive oil?
3. Is there data available for what foods each group actually ate?
4. Was there an emphasis on whole grain products vs refined grain products in all three groups?
5. Were the carbohydrates consumed by the low-fat and Mediterranean diet group mostly in the form of white bread and other refined carbohydrates, or were they from a variety of whole grain products, beans, fruits and vegetables?
6. The difference in decreased calorie consumption between groups did not reach statistical significance. But, the Mediterranean group had a decrease in calorie consumption of about 100 calories per day less than the other two groups. Multiplying this 100 calorie/day difference by 730 days (2 years) gives a difference of 73,000 calories or about 21 pounds of weight loss that should have occurred in both the low-fat and low-carb groups compared to the Mediterranean group – yet this did not happen. Why?
7. How do you account for any difference in weight loss between the three groups if your data suggests there was no statistical difference in the amount of decrease in calorie consumption and no difference in the amount of calories burned with exercise?
8. People have suggested that possibly dietary choices influence metabolic rate and therefore a “calorie may not be a calorie.” If there is a change in metabolic rate that accounts for different amounts of weight loss between different groups why didn’t you measure resting metabolic rate in your subjects before and after the diet changes?
9. The low-carb group had the biggest increase in HDL. They also had a relative and an absolute increase in the consumption of saturated fat by the data provided in table 2. Saturated fat consumption has been shown to increase the “wrong kind” of HDL – a form of HDL that is actually proinflammatory and proatherogenic. I think it would be important to mention this, but you didn’t. Why? See reference: http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/48/4/715
10. The Mediterranean diet was not developed by an entrepreneur looking to cash in on the obesity epidemic like the Atkins diet was. The Mediterranean diet is a traditional eating pattern that has been consistently linked with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer over decades of research. The Mediterranean diet was not “created” as a weight loss diet. It was also a traditional eating pattern associated with a lifestyle that included a lot of physical activity, less stressful work and family settings, and moderate alcohol consumption. I think it is misleading and confusing to drag the Mediterranean diet into the ridiculous debate between low-fat and low-carb zealots because of this very fundamental difference in the origin of the various diets. The Mediterranean diet is really much more about a lifestyle than a diet – and it certainly isn’t a quick weight loss program. Your thoughts?
Matt Johnson, a professional trainer, is the fitness expert at DietsInReview.com, where he shares insight and guidance for staying fit and living a healthy, active life. DietsInReview.com also provides healthy recipes, weight loss tools, health news and more than 475 diet reviews.
This week on Fitness Rocks I have a great conversation with Dr. Kathleen Melanson from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Melanson is a nutritional expert with a special interest in sports nutrition. We talk about a range of interesting topics including carbohydrate loading, sports drinks, post-exercise meals, and dairy products. Check it out and send me your thoughts through email.
This week on Fitness Rocks I have an interview with Dr. Eliza Chakravarty of Stanford Medical School about a paper she and her colleagues published in the Archives of Internal Medicine entitled Reduced Disability and Mortality Among Aging Runners.
I’ve been visiting my parents in Texas this past week. I’ll be back on Cape Cod this Saturday - the day before the Falmouth Road Race.
I’ve received a lot of emails about an article that appeared in the 
