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1. Meal Frequency Q: I hear a lot of talk about "frequent feedings" - the five or six small meals per day approach. Why is this important? Can't I just eat three large meals each day if they have the same calorie total? A: Splitting your total daily caloric intake into five or six balanced meals has numerous benefits. These include steady insulin release/stable blood sugar, increased metabolism, more efficient digestion of food, increased availability of proteins for recovery and increased energy -- basically everything that anyone looking to increase muscle mass would desire. The problem with the frequent feedings is simply one of convenience. It is difficult to prepare clean meals in the range of 40 per week! This is where the "miracle" of meal replacements like Myoplex play a huge role. They allow you to add two to three perfectly balanced meals to your daily intake without any effort at all. There is no guess work or risk that these meals would be high in fat or unhealthy. Score a "10" for meal replacers when it comes to helping us get the nutrition when we need it! Q: I've read that turkey breast has a lower fat content than chicken breast, but for some reason, my stomach just can't tolerate turkey meat. Is there another type of meat that is as low in fat as turkey? I don't want to go back to chicken breasts because of their fat content. A:This is one of those questions that I usually put in my "too stupid to answer" file, but I'm so tired of getting queries from bodybuilders regarding the fat content of various foods, I'm going to offer a reply. First of all, I suppose it is true that turkey meat has a little less fat per ounce than chicken, but...WHO CARES?! We're talking about minuscule, irrelevant differences. A lot of bodybuilders are really hung up on completely eliminating fat from their diets. Their erroneous belief that eliminating dietary lipids is the most important thing they can do to lose body fat is continually reinforced by the mainstream media. Remember, if you're trying to lose body fat, you really need to pay more attention to your total caloric intake rather than fat intake. I can put anyone on a zero-fat diet, load them up on carbs, and watch them explode with body fat. Now, that doesn't mean that French fries and cheeseburgers are a good idea--it just means that some fat in the diet isn't only "not bad," it's good! Certain fats (conjugated linolenic acids) may actually be "anti-catabolic"--they may help prevent the breakdown of muscle tissue. And steaks are loaded with CLAs. Steak is also high in creatine. So by all means, have some steak now and then. Have some chicken and fish, too. And if turkey upsets your stomach, don't eat it! Q: In order to get the greatest muscle-building effects from my fat intake while minimizing the chances for increasing body fat, are there factors to consider other than the percentage of fat intake? A: There are two important factors to consider to optimize the anabolic potential of your fat intake --fat type and intake timing. The types of fats you should be consuming are the essential fatty acids and linolenic fatty acids. These fats are polyunsaturated and are always found in liquid form. One of the most concentrated sources of these fats is flax seed oil. Other good sources include canola, safflower and olive oils. Using these fats as the bulk of your intake will optimize your hormone production and repair potential and avoid all of the health risks associated with consuming large quantities of saturated or animal fats. Also consider the importance of intake timing. It is important to consume your fat in small measured doses throughout the day; adding 12 to 15 grams to each of your six small meals a day is perfect. This serves two purposes. First, it supplies your body with a constant supply of quality fat for hormone production and tissue repair. Second, it helps to control wild swings in blood sugar by controlling the rate of gastric emptying and intestinal absorption. This is desirable because dramatic variations in blood sugar not only promote fat storage, but they can really zap your energy as well. Q: Is weightlifting beneficial for fat loss? A: Yes. A loss of muscle mass causes a decrease in metabolic rate and subsequent weight (fat) gain. Inevitably, dieters undergoing Calorie restriction will lose some of their muscle mass. This loss of muscle will slow down the metabolic rate causing them to resort to further Calorie decreases (or increases in physical activity) in order to continue losing weight. Weightlifting can actually prevent some of this muscle loss, and if new muscle is added to your frame, you will actually burn more Calories when you aren't even exercising (the other 23 hours in the day). Successful weight loss requires permanent dietary and exercise changes, but the goal of fat loss is more likely to be successful when weightlifting is combined with proper diet and aerobic (cardiovascular) exercise. Q: What about those weight loss centers? Weight loss centers are usually viewed as a temporary fix and they rarely contribute to long-term management of body fat. People will usually visit the center for a while where their meals are controlled and they are regularly weighed and measured for body fat. However, once the person stops visiting the center, their eating patterns do not resemble the meals of the controlled environments and people often lose motivation without the regular weigh-ins to monitor their progress. Successful elimination of body fat comes about through long-term changes in diet (decrease Calorie intake, eat healthier foods) and a long-term commitment to exercise. Flax seed oil is used to combat cardiovascular disease, cancer, liver and gut disorders, skin complaints ad impairment of the immune system. Flax is the world's richest source of omega-3 fatty acids (see 4.13). It also contains natural anti-oxidants, carotene and vitamin E which help slow the oxidation process of this highly active dietary essential fatty acid. The fatty acids in flax seed oil are essential and play many physiological roles. It has been used with some success in treating skin afflictions that have resulted from a loss of cell membrane integrity. Flax can also relieve constipation and generally assists bowel movements. Flax can also help regulate the body's levels of triglycerides. Flax oil, when fresh, has a light consistency and a delicate, nutty taste. It should be bought in an opaque, glass or special plastic container to protect it from the oxidizing effects of light. It should also be stored in a cool place and consumed within three weeks after opening. Flax oil should never be cooked. Q: On your recommendation from the last issue, I went to buy some flaxseed oil. It's damn expensive. My Nutritional Almanac tells me that soy oil has a pretty good source for linolenic acid. So what's wrong with soy? A: Modern supermarket soy oils are not what they used to be. The cooking oils in supermarkets have been highly processed so that color, taste, and smell have all been virtually eliminated. Beyond that, oil manufacturers have always been looking for commercial oils that will have a very long shelf life and sustain high heat without turning bad. Bad, in this case, means that eventually the highly unstable fatty acids like linoleic and linolenic acids will chemically bond with oxygen and turn rancid. Also, light and heat will turn the cis fatty acids (which can be used in the body cells) into the trans fatty acids which aren't, in most instances (CLA excepted), good for the body. Soy oil has about 10% linolenic acid content, and this particular fatty acid is the one that turns rancid fastest. So the oil manufacturers have bred a special strain of soybean that has very little linolenic acid in it, and it has replaced the more stable monounsaturated oleic acid. To remind you, oleic acid is the chief fatty acid in olive oil. So on one hand, the high oleic soy oil is a nice fat, as oleic acid does no harm. But now you don't have any linolenic acid anymore, which would be okay except as a consumer you have no way of knowing which soy you are buying. The label will not specify if the soy is the modified high oleic. But yes, if you find a soy oil from a company that claims that their soy has not been bleached and deodorized, then soy might be a thrifty alternative. But you need to compare prices. I would imagine, though, that the cost of the "natural" soy oil with its 10% linolenic content would not be much cheaper as compared to a 50% linolenic content of flaxseed oil if we figure cost for linolenic acid.
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