Achieving a plan for sound nutrition

Volume One, Issue 23, February 23 - March 1, 2007

Health & Fitness

By Greg Rothman, M.S. P.T.

In my last two columns, I wrote about strength training and cardio workouts, two required elements of any fitness program that work together as “synergy” to give you optimal results. Today, we’ll discuss nutrition, the final and most challenging piece of the puzzle for most people.

Eating healthy is difficult, given our culture’s reliance on dieting. That’s counterintuitive thinking, I know, but it’s important to remember that dieting actually makes people fatter in the long-run. Why? Because when we start restricting calories and taking in less food than we need, our bodies begin to lose water, muscle tissue is then broken down (catabolized) and used as fuel, and finally, our endocrine system downgrades its hormone production so that we can survive on less fuel. The result: dehydration and a slower metabolism.

When the body gets depleted to its breaking point, the brain then releases chemicals to make us go “off” the diet. It’s an insidious little trick. We chastise ourselves for having no willpower to resist the cravings, yet the cravings are actually nature’s way of telling us: “Eat. You’re depriving yourself of the nutrients you need.” To add insult to injury, when we go off the diet, we put on all the lost weight (mostly water and muscle), only now in the form of fat tissue — and we have a slower metabolism.

So, if diets are not the solution, what is? This is a question I hear frequently as I speak with people about fitness. The answer lies in making small lifestyle changes that stoke the metabolism and help fat-burning occur all day (and night) long.

If you think about metabolism as being a furnace that works only when you add fuel (food), then it follows that the more often you add fuel, the faster the furnace works to burn it — and stored body fat. To that end, eat small, frequent meals every three to three-and-a-half-hours — five or six meals should be the rule. Conversely, when we don’t eat for long periods of time, we ask for trouble: Our blood sugar drops, then spikes again when we finally do get a meal. Why should we care about this? Well, it’s actually the single most important concept to understand if fat loss is the goal.

When the pancreas is not preoccupied producing insulin to compensate for the spikes in blood sugar, it has the wherewithal to produce a hormone called glucagon, which releases fat into the bloodstream, where it becomes available to the muscles to be burned as fuel. Keeping your blood-sugar level stable throughout the day, then, is crucial for fat-burning to take place any time the body is in an aerobic state — when doing cardio, working at your computer, while you sleep.

Once we understand why it’s important to eat frequently, we can focus on what to eat. I suggest dividing your smaller meals into three visually equal parts of a lean protein, fibrous carbohydrate (vegetable) and starchy carbohydrate. When you eat supportive foods such as these, the body gets a “thermic boost” by burning a good percentage of the calories during digestion and reintegration, helping drive the metabolism and resulting in fewer calories.

Food selection is a vast subject: There are currently more than 4,000 books on diet and nutrition in bookstores, so covering every aspect in this forum is hardly my goal. But now that you have a handle on the big concepts, you can adapt these to a plan that works for you. For a list of the best foods from each group, visit: emPowerFitnessNYC.com/diet_nutrition.

Once you have the final part of the “synergy” down, you’ll understand everything that you need to create a healthier, leaner you. Remember to take things one step at a time and make the small adjustments in your lifestyle to achieve optimal results. In future columns, I’ll address questions that I’ve received from readers — so, send me your most pressing fitness and nutrition queries, and I’ll see that they get answered.

CORRECTION: Last week, in my column on cardio workouts, it incorrectly stated that to calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220, and then divide that number by both 0.65 and 0.85 to yield your “target heart zone,” or the range of intensity within which you should exercise. Actually, you should multiply that number by both 0.65 and 0.85 to yield the two ends of your target heart zone.

Greg Rothman, M.S. P.T., is the owner of emPower Fitness Studios (emPowerFitnessNYC.com). He received his masters degree in physical therapy from Columbia University and has 15 years’ experience in the rehabilitation and fitness fields, most recently as the personal training manager and top-level trainer for Equinox Fitness Clubs in New York City. SEND YOUR QUESTIONS about nutrition, fitness and sports injuries/rehabilitation to Greg at emPowerFitness@aol.com.