SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

This article is not supposed to encourage the use of exercise as a means to eat more junk. After all a psychotherapeutic / psychiatric ward is the only place this form of exercise addiction is going to get you. Ok, let me briefly make one thing unmistakably clear: you should never  train to burn calories (even worse, to eat pizza and pie, because you "deserve it"). Good reasons to train are (a) to build muscle, (b) build strength, (c) improve your conditioning and (d) general health. It is likewise a good idea to (e) support your dieting efforts with strength and cardio training that is meant to increase the rate of fat/muscle loss. Yet even if you don't train to burn calories, it can be very useful in all these contexts to have at least an estimate of how much energy you're spending during the workouts. What for? Well, to know roughly how much more you'd had to eat to stay in an energy and how much more would be too much so that fat gain would be the inevit...

A dream has come true: You can burn more calories by eating more... unfortunately, the so-called "diet-induced thermogenesis" does not fully compensate the increased energy intake - you cannot eat yourself slim as "unfair" as some people think this was. You all will have read that: eating a high protein meal first thing in the AM kickstarts your metabolic engine. But do you also know that this "kick" is worth - in terms of calories, for example? Do you know how the mix of carbohydrates, fats and proteins will affect your diet-induced thermogenesis? Can you tell if calories matter and whether the meal size and speed at which you consume a given meal will matter? Well, today's SuppVersity  article will not be able to answer all of these questions in a "once and for all" fashion, but being based on the latest systematic review by Quatela et al. (2016), it will still give you a good overview of the individual effects of differing energy int...

I have to admit: This is an awkward collection of studies, but this is what happens if you (cherry) pick and discuss only those of the papers in the latest issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditio-ning Research  which I personally found interesting / most interesting. Some of you have probably already been missing it. The short science round-ups with the latest scientific evidence from exercise and nutrition science all around the world. Studies such as Mosher's nitrate supplementation study that shows significant increases in the maximal number of reps during strength training. Studies such as Ouelette's study that refutes the notion that walking on a treadmill in-between sets is beneficial for trainees who are working out in the strength-conditioning range (crossfitters). Studies such as Wilson's review of the usefulness of CHO supplements with an unambiguous result in favor of CHO supplements. And studies like Lattari's who tested the effects of transcrani...

These are the kind of abs, you will see on products with T2 and/or T2 and other alleged fat-burners. Don't be fooled by the ads - even if it's the actually active form of diiodothyronine (T2), namely 3,5-T2, you're buying, the pills alone won't get you to the sub-10% body fat range you  may be dreaming of. I've written about the thyroid hormone metabolite  diiodothyronine aka T2 before. Accordingly, you will probably know that it has long been thought of as an inactive byproduct of the thyroid hormone metabolism ( read previous T2-articles ). You will also be aware of the fact that research shows that (a) this is not the case and that (b) only one of its two forms, namely 3,5-diiodothyronine (3,5-T2) shares the fat burning, metabolic effects of its big brother triiodothyronine aka T3. Just like me, you probably don't know, however, why supplement companies are still stupid enough to use both 3,5- and 3,3-diiodothyronine in their allegedly fat burning suppl...

The complex neuronal clockwork in your brain needs water to run smoothly. But how much water does it need? If you have been reading SuppVersity articles for more than a week, you will know that a lack of water can easily turn an Einstein into a Neanderthal ( learn more ). Fully convincing experimental evidence for the efficacy and, more importantly, optimal amount(s) of water as a 'nootropic supplement' in non-dehydrated individuals, as it has just been provided by a recent study from the  University of East London  and the  University of Westminster  (Edmonds. 2016), however, has not been available... Not available, yet?! That is, obviously, before Edmonds and colleagues set out to investigate the dose-response characteristics of the effects of acute water supplementation on cognitive performance and mood. Learn all about plain and not so plain water at the SuppVersity Hydrogen Rich Water = Quackery? Glass of Water Before Meals as Diet Tool ...