SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Image 1: Location of the different fat depots of the human body (sorry Evilyn, had to borrow this from your Carbsane blog ;-) Having tons of subcutaneous fat is certainly unaesthetic, but as science would have it, probably more healthy than a mediocre amount of superfluous visceral fat. But why is that? I mean, what makes the difference? It cannot be the location, can it? Well, a recently published study on metabolic dysfunction in diet induced diabetic mice suggests that it could be as simple as that ( Lam. 2012 ). You cannot spot reduce fat, but can you "spot inflame" it? In order to assess the effects of normal vs. high fat (60%) diets on gut Permeability and microbiota the Yan Y Lam and his (or her?) colleagues from the University of Sidney kept a group of 16-week old Female C57BL/6J mice (those are the "normal" lab mice used in these experiments) on a regular chow diet (control; 10% fat) or a high saturated fat (34%) high fat diet (HFD; 60% of total en...

Image 1: If I had to chose between the man on the left and the one on the right as my "dietary adviser", I would probably chose the right guy - I would not want him as a fitness coach, though ;-) At least for those of you, for whom this is not their first visit at the SuppVersity , the term "physical culture" should sound somewhat familiar. I have "stolen" it from my friend Carl Lanore, the host of Super Human Radio who (I am sorry Carl) has probably "borrowed" it from someone else (maybe Randy Roach?)... in the end, it does not matter who coined the term; for me, it embodies the notion of working out for life - not just to look good on Spring Break. To embrace a healthy diet and to value your body in a non-narcissistic fashion. It is this "I am in this for life" mentality that will eventually pay off - and it is the lack thereof which renders all short-term attempts to "lose weight" or "pack on muscle" futile....

Image 1: Without exercise and a healthy diet your fight against body fat is as desperate as Heracles fight against the Hydra without the help of his nephew Iolaus . After yesterday's blogpost on the Biggest Losers , who - upon closer scrutiny - were not so bad of, as many people in the health and fitness community would have it, we will take a look at a more convenient and (accordingly *sigh*) increasingly popular way to get rid of the nasty lovehandles: Liposuction, or the costly reduction of subcutaneous body fat with a hopefully 100% sterile vacuum cleaner ;-) Aside from the risks that are directly related to the operation, a group of Brazilian researchers right from the mecca of plastic surgery, Sao Paulo, has just published a paper (2 days ago, to be precise) on another, hitherto totally overlooked side effect that arose subsequent to a small-volume tumescent abdominal liposuction (1240.3ml) in the sedentary half of 36 physically inactive (i.e. not engaged in any form of ...

Image 1: How many Biggest Loser ranches like this could you possibly build from the billions of dollars the American Health Care System alone is paying for drugs to manage instead of tread the obesity epidemic? And would it be worth it? If you really want to get me started, you got to ask me "how many calories" you are supposed to eat. In my whole life, I have never even seen let alone eaten such a thing as "a calorie" and although I have no scientific evidence for that, my personal experience tells me that meticulous and even anxious calorie counting can make you skinny and crazy, yet never lean and sane. Aside from food quality factors, which certainly have a major impact, the real, fundamental fallacy of the "cut your calories" approach to weight loss is the ubiquitous ignorance towards the adaptive capabilities of the human body. A topic, I have broached several times before - yet obviously to no avail, other than the constant decry that "...

Image 1: In his effort to look even better on stage, Adelfo goes to extremes; yet, what may be beneficial, even necessary, when you are at his level of conditioning and muscularity. Mark my words: Don't try Adelfo's program at home , ah... I mean at your gym ;-) I must admit that when I read Adelfo's weekly write-up, I was ... well, "shocked" may not be the right word. Maybe "perplexed" would be a better word!? After all, here he was, my friend Adelfo Cerame, citing me as a source for workout that is in fact so insane that it could eventually actually work out (all puns intended). I am yet still not 100% sure if Adelfo simply misunderstood my "Do 100" principle from the last installment of the " Step to step guide to your own workout routine " series, which actually implied doing 100 reps of a single, i.e. one, uno, or in German "eine", exercise in as many sets as it takes and then head home , or, if he (and I guess thi...

Image 1: Even if you find this disgusting, I would like to invite you at least read what the outspoken carnivor in me has to tell you. It appears to be an endless debate: Can you eat meat? May you eat meat? And even should you eat meat? I already mentioned in my post on the " Chinese meat supplement " study from last week that many of the accepted "truths" about real , unprocesed red meat are about as "true" as the hilarious statement that "going to the hospital causes pre-mature death"... After reading my friend Carl Lanore 's luckily very reasonable and not overtly "ranting" blogpost on " What to say to a Vegan ", a few days ago, I decided to sum up some of the research to scrutinize, which of the objections against and arguments for eating meat are actually rooted in science (I mean, my life as a meat eater could depend on it, right? ;-). Pork rules, but is that a good thing? If we take a look at the actual meat...

Image 1: Cows must be stupid animals, right? I mean everybody knows that whey is better than casein, so why would they "spike" their milk with this allegedly inferior protein source, instead of providing us and their calves with the "most anabolic", leucine-loaden whey protein? Or do cows know better than us? Question: "Whey or Casein to maximize protein synthesis?" The answer appears to be easy: Whey, of course! Faster absorption, higher rates of hyperaminoacidemia (higher than normal amino acid levels in the blood), more leucine, more mTOR, more insulin, more, more ... and did I say more? Well, other than maybe Dr. Scott Connelly, who just came out with his new total milk protein based meal supplement product Physique 2.0, you will in fact be hard pressed to find anyone, let alone a renowned expert arguing in favor of casein. Yet still, Marielle P.K.J. Engelen and her colleagues from the University of Arkansas for Medical Science, Maastricht Univers...

Image 1: Johanna Quas (86), "Germany's Fittest Granny"; check out this video of her on the high bar to see an extraordinary exception proving the rule - everybody who believes he/she could rival Johanna's gymnastic skills, could try that at the next world cup, where she probably will be competing again. "Rodents are no little human beings", you will probably have heard or read this sentence at least a hundred times by now, but have you heard someone say "3 sets are not 1 set", "women are not men" or "8 weeks are not 16 weeks"? No, well in that case, a recently published meta-analysis of 45 primary strength training studies involving 1712 participants by Michael Fröhlich, Lutz Links and Andrea Pieter, is for you ( Fröhlich. 2012 ). Age, sex, training status, ... a hell lot of things to consider The scientists from the University of Saarland and the Deutsche Hochschule für Prävention  und Gesundheitsmanagementin Saarbrück...