Home / Articles / Q & A / Going Postal / Sep 27 2002

Going Postal
We respond to the good, the bad, and the ugly of this month's mailbag.

John, great web site and great advice. Currently, according to your recommendations, I am following your Lean Eatin' diet recommendations and Winning Formula exercise program. And it's working very well (4 lbs in 2 weeks). I hope that I can keep on losing weight. I'm worried though, because I always seem to hit a plateau. Any advice?

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your great start. But I must caution you about using negative self-talk like "I always seem to hit a plateau". It's defeating and doesn't help you get any closer to your goals. However, your comments lead me to address a problem that most "rookie" exercisers have. Most newbies assume that they can simply print a off a random diet program and random exercise program off the Internet and follow it until they achieve the physique of their dreams. Well, newbies, that sort of idea is exactly what leads to "plateaus".

Think about it. The body is adaptive. It adapts to any program by changing to accommodate the new demands and then becoming acclimated to that program so that it doesn't have to change any longer. Knowing this, why would a trainee continue to follow the same program while their body is adapting. For example, if I'm 200lbs and lose 10lbs, I need to recalculate my calorie needs. I also need to realize that my metabolic rate may be slowing due to the dieting and that I need to adjust my exercise activity to accommodate that.

I often get the following question…"I did my calorie calculations 4 weeks ago and have been following your Massive Eating diet ever since. How long should I stay on the program?" The answer is this…"You've been on it too long already!" If you haven't seen any changes you have to adjust the calories up. If you have gained lean body mass, you should have been re-calculating your needs all along and the program should be different already.

My point is this. There is NO excuse for a plateau. That simply means that you've become lazy. You only hit plateaus when you fail to adapt your program to how your body is changing. In your case, don't let your weight loss/fat loss slow down one bit below 1-2 lbs per week. If it looks like it may be slowing you have 3 options. First, increase your activity. Second, decrease your calories. Third, increase your activity AND decrease your calories. It's as simple as that!

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the two versions of glutamine (peptides vs. free form). Unfortunately, in spite of what seemed to be hours of sifting through the PubMed database, I haven't come up with anything definitive. I'm leaning toward glutamine peptide based on stability and clinical outcomes. What do you think?

This is a debate that I'm not all that interested in. Why? Well, I just don't think glutamine is all that important for healthy, high protein eatin', weight lifters. Sure glutamine is uber-beneficial for clinical wasting and disease patients. Sure glutamine might give the immune system a little kick. But let's face it. That's not what it's being marketed for. Nope, the supplement manufacturers are marketing it as something designed to get you hyooge! Well, there's no evidence whatsoever indicating that it works in this way!

Let's face it. When you eat a high protein diet you get tons of glutamine already. So why must I take way more than what I'm getting from my 200-400g of protein per day. Now, if you're a weight lifter and are eating a low protein diet, you probably don't need to worry about glutamine anyway because your commitment to your progress must be lacking.

Of course, I know some of you are remembering that I recommend a few grams of glutamine (like 5 or less) after training so that those aminos will be available just in case the body needs them. And I even went ahead and included some in Biotest Surge. But, to be honest, I could either take it or leave it.

Without going into too much detail as my good friend Dave Barr is about to publish an article (either in Muscular Development or over at T-mag), there are a few situations where glutamine supplementation may be useful but these situations involve large metabolic perturbations that most trainees will never see.

So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where glutamine is needed, which should you take? Well, as you said, the data are mixed. Peptides do seem more stable in solution. And some people argue that they are better absorbed (but I find these data unconvincing). But since free form tastes better, is cheaper, and doesn't seem to be any worse than the peptides, I usually just recommend free form glutamine.

Keep your eyes open for Dave's article as it may smash some of glutamine's prestige as a "wonder-supplement".

What do you think of all this talk of "fish oil toxicity"?

I've heard all the arguments for and against using fish oil and my conclusion, at this point, is that even if there is potential toxicity (mercury or anything else), the benefits FAR outweigh the risks. So when health experts suggest avoiding fish oil, I think they are doing people a disservice. By creating a big toxin scare they're discouraging the use of the ultra-health promoting oils. They're "muddying the waters", so to speak, and people, in the absence of an expert consensus, do nothing proactive to take control of their health. Nice work, health paranoiacs!

While I understand why the health paranoia proponents bitch about toxic fish oil, the fact of the matter remains. Thousands of studies have been done using fish oil (of all concentrations and "purities") and in each study the benefits of the fish oil have manifested in amazing ways. Talk about a panacea for our culture's syndrome x problems! In the face of this overwhelming evidence in favor of fish oil, there has been very little reported in the way of negative effects.

But even if the research isn't enough to convince you, how about checking out the health histories of the people with the highest level of deep ocean fish consumption. You'll not find a dramatically high incidence of "toxicity". In fact, these people are far healthier than North Americans are.

At this year's SWIS symposium, everyone recommended fish oil but most of these people suggested that fish oil was toxic. Interesting that in the face of all of this toxicity, the studies have shown overwhelming benefits anyway, such that the experts are still recommending them. Regardless, one thing I did take away from the SWIS symposium, something I've been championing for a long time now, was that you should be getting concentrated forms of EPA/DHA. Barry Sears recommended "pharmaceutical grade" fish oil, which is defined as containing > 60% EPA+DHA. That's not a bad suggestion. Unfortunately that's hard to find. However, there are many companies producing concentrations in the 50% range and that, to me, is close enough.

In the end, sometimes the health paranoiacs are onto something when they bitch against the FDA or the DEA or the pharmaceutical companies. But in this case I believe them to be doing the general population a disservice with their anti-fish scare tactics.

Hey John, I've got a bunch of articles that I want to write. How does one go about getting published on your site?

Although there is no set protocol for article submission, this is what I generally have in mind. First, email me at info@johnberardi.com and let me know that you are interested in writing an article on x, y, or z. In this email let me know which direction you're thinking of going with the article. Then, if I think it sounds like it'll be a good one, I'll suggest that you write it and send it to me when finished. Of course, this doesn't guarantee that it'll get accepted for publication. It just means that it's a good idea and if you can turn the idea into an excellent, well-written article, we'll consider using it.

Next, the terms; there are 3:

1) Johnberardi.com does not currently pay for article submissions, but if you're comfortable with that, we'd love to publish your work and give you a chance to get your name out.

2) You may publish this anywhere else, as we will not ask for rights to the content. It's still yours; you're just giving our readers access to it.

3) If minor editorial changes must be made for style or grammar, we will do so and check with you before running the article.

So send us what you got!

I'm not sure how well I understand the implications of a high carb meal when on a low carb diet. How will the muscles and fat cells respond to a big protein + carb meal when I'm ketogenic or just above that level in terms of carb intake? Will there be a significant spillover into fat or will it go into muscle glycogen? How about with massive eating?

That's a toughie since you asked about 4 questions!

My first inclination is to tell you that it's nearly impossible to predict exactly how carb intake will be distributed or partitioned between different compartments of the body (fat vs. lean). When on a low carb diet the body will respond to a carb "challenge" with a seemingly disproportionate glucose and insulin response (due to the high circulating levels of fatty acids, glucose disposal will be reduced and due to the resulting high blood glucose, the body may release a greater amount of insulin as a result).

So yes, there can be "spillover" (a term I don't like to use). But, on the other hand, a low carb diet will manifest in reduced muscle glycogen, a storehouse of carbs that wants to be full. So glycogen will be formed as well. In fact, in many individuals, if liver and muscle glycogen is low enough, even in the face of hyperinsulinemia and poorer glucose tolerance, most of those carbs will go to the liver and muscle.

Now, to guess as to how much carb (as well as the fat that's floating around in the blood) will go to that muscle or to that fat is really difficult and dependent on many factors (some of which may be genetic, others may include gastric hormones, neurotransmitters, and other little known and understood hormones like ASP and Leptin).

Now, it's important to realize that that's assuming there is a glucose "challenge" or a conscious "carb up".

For most people worried about this issue, a smart idea would be to eat lower GI carbs if you're presented with this situation. Eating low GI carbs in reasonable quantities should not result in a large fat gain since the appearance of glucose into the blood will be slow and steady.

Sure, when total caloric intake exceeds the body's needs and the thermic effect of the meal, storage will ensue. Again, where the storage occurs has a lot to do with the factors mentioned as well as prior activity and immediate activity afterward. But in the end, low GI meals should not result in much fat storage whether on a higher carb or lower carb diet.

This all does tie in to massive eating peripherally. With respect to massive eating, I've discussed that very low GI foods (beans, veggies, fruit) can be eaten with f+p meals in small amounts due to the fiber content and the low blood glucose and insulin responses. But I typically recommend just sticking with f+p.

I'm having shoulder surgery this month and the doctors predict that it will be somewhere between 3-6 months before I can train properly again. Since I wont be working out, how can I eat during this time to prevent fat gain?

It appears that your dilemma is as follows…what can I do during periods of forced or voluntary inactivity? Well, first of all I would recommend finding a way to exercise. If the shoulder is bum, do some lower body cardio and some leg training with weights. If it's the knee, do some upper body weight training. Regardless of the injury, find a way to be active.

Understand though that just because you are staying active doesn't mean that your activity will be as energy intensive as it was when you were healthy. You'll have to modify your diet. In this scenario I recommend eating like a healthy person but not a weight lifter. What does that mean? Well, let me give an example.

Last year, due to several overuse injuries as well as some vacation time, I took a full month off working out with weights. During this time I did hit a bit of cardio using an upright lifecycle and a rowing ergometer (low intensity and some high intensity intermittent). While I stayed "active," I was doing less than 1/3 of what I had been previously doing. So, during this relative period of inactivity I decided to eat as if I were just some health nut who barely worked out but knew how to eat well for health reasons.

I decided to eat about 5 times per day, when I was hungry. While I didn't count calories, I can estimate my average caloric intake at 2500-3000. (I normally consume around 5000). My meal planning was simple as I just filled a big bowl with as many beans, fruits, and vegetables as I could get my hands on and then added about 40g of lean protein and a few tablespoons of good fat like flax oil or olive oil. That was the extent of my food rules. Interestingly, eating this way did, in fact, make me leaner. And this, in the absence of 2/3 of my habitual activity.

So my advice to you is as follows. Exercise as often as your body allows, teach yourself to eat in moderation and eat the healthiest, low energy density foods around, and concentrate on rest and recovery. Many people, when injured and unable to train, simply eat crappy as they lose their motivation to "be good." That's unfortunate since your body needs a bounty of good nutrients to help with the repair of your injuries. Do all of this so that when you return to the gym, you'll be healthy, lean, and ready to make some fantastic gains.

Wanna drop us a line? Contact us at info@johnberardi.com