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Gang of Five
Mar 2001

By Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D.
First published at www.t-mag.com

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Can your trainer do long division too?

Q: My trainer told me one golden rule about losing fat is to never combine carbs and dietary fat in the same meal, like bread and butter. He says eating protein with fat or protein with complex carbs will help me get leaner, but the fat and carbs combo is a ticket to Fat City. Is he just making this up, or is there any basis to this?

A: Well, well, finally a trainer that knows his ass from an adductor machine! I never thought Id be agreeing with a personal trainer but I'm gonna have to do it this time. Your trainer is correct. I lecture and write on this topic pretty extensively and my thoughts on this are in my Massive Eating (Part 1 and Part 2) and Don't Diet articles. But for a quick review, listen up.

Traditionally, when people have discussed the concept of a "balanced diet", they've used some ignorant notion that eating some protein, some carbs, and some fats in each meal would yield "balance". It seems to make sense, right? And it fits in with the prevalent societal notion of moderation in all things.."a little carb, a little fat, a little protein - it's all good".

Beyond the inherent psychological appeal of this type of eating, diets such as the zone diet and the isocaloric diet have come along to confirm the public's suspicion the pesky notion that..."a little carb, a little fat, a little protein - it's all good".

But the problem is that once the body gets a little carb, a little fat, and a little protein, it also gets A LOT of insulin. And when the blood has carbs, fats, proteins, and high insulin concentrations, it certainly isn't all good. In fact, it could be pretty bad.

With this situation there's a triple whammy. The first whammy is that high insulin prevents fat release from fat tissues (and eventual fat burning). Insulin is a storage hormone that over rides many other physiological signals. Just ask someone who has gone into hypoglycemic shock from injected insulin - if they are still living, that is.

The second whammy is that since insulin is a storage hormone, it will nicely shuttle those nutrients into muscle and fat cells and this could also lead to some fat gain (muscle gain too, however).

But the third whammy is that high blood levels of fats could lead to temporary insulin resistance. This means that for each level of nutrients in the blood, more insulin has to be released to transport them into the muscle and fat cells (especially the muscle cells). So if you've got high blood fats, the nutrients that are in the blood are more likely to be shunted into the fat cells and not into the muscle cells.

So at this point, I hope that I've presented a convincing case for the avoidance of eating fats and carbs within the same meal. Remember, however, that eating protein plus carbs is a good choice because although insulin will go up, insulin sensitivity will remain high. This meal will have some nice anabolic effects in muscle tissue.

In addition, eating protein plus fat prevents large insulin rises that inhibit fat breakdown. And since there are no carbs in this meal, even if the fats in the meal cause acute insulin resistance to that meal, there are no carbs present to be driven into fat cells.

We need a new definition of balance. Perhaps by combining both types of meals in a single day, one could promote both muscle anabolism and fat catabolism so that both muscle growth and fat loss could occur during the same training cycle. See my Don't Diet article for more specific recommendations on this.

Can't stop 'til I get enough

Q: What types of supplements lose effectiveness if you never take a break from them? I am torn between worrying about losing potential gains if I stop, and losing potential gains because I don't stop.

A: Supplements…cant live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Or is that women? Heck, I don't know but what I do know is that your supplement problem is echoed in many emails I receive. And because of this I am finishing an article called Making Sense of Supplementation. It's designed to help you navigate through the harsh streets of the supplement world with a little bit of "street smarts".

Since I prefer a more integrated approach to training, nutrition, and supplementation, you have to understand that these variables are not independent. For example, if you're following a periodized training program with specific goals for specific periods of the year, you will figure out which supplements fit in to your power phase or your hypertrophy phase, for example.

In addition, once you figure this out, you can feel comfortable "seeing other supplements" for a while. Here is an example. Knowing that 5-methyl-7-isoflavone (methoxy 7) acts as a nutrient partitioning agent that may increase muscle mass, you should realize that it has a place on your shelf during hypertrophy phases of training. But during power phases, it might have limited use. So feel free to drop it during these types of phases.

Another example is as follows. During intense training periods testosterone, cortisol, and neurotransmitter levels can take a turn for the worse. So supplements like Tribex, PhosphatidylSerine, and Power Drive can be useful. But you can't train with superhuman intensity all year round. During your lower intensity phases you can feel free to drop these supplements because there will be little risk of overtraining and therefore they won't be needed.

By allowing supplements to flow in and out of your training phases, only being used when they are most needed, you have a smooth and natural supplement transition period and you won't feel like you are going to be shrinking. In addition, since some supplements may lose their effectiveness with chronic use, you can build in extended periods where you can take a break from certain supplements and introduce others.

Once you understand how each supplement works on the body, you can figure out which ones are needed and when they are needed.