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FitTips for One and All - Vol. V, No. 6

FitTips for One and All
Volume V, Number 6
2007

Presented by Fitness for One and All
Director: Gary F. Zeolla

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Emails on Nutrition and Back Pain

By Gary F. Zeolla

Going through some old emails once again. Below are two that deal with nutrition and one on back pain. The emailers' comments are in black and enclosed in greater than and lesser than signs; my comments are in red.

Subject: Very glad to read your work and have a question

>Hi, Gary,

I read your writing of Hormones and Diet, and I think you offer the best insight of the relationship between hormones and diet in your writing among all the readings I could find on the Internet so far. I am planning to take your advices and have a following question before I do that.

If I use your diet plan (Fat: 35-50%, Protein: 20-35%, Carbs: 30-50%) in order to raise my testosterone levels, is there any side effects (such as vitamin and mineral deficiency)?

Keep up the good work and I am looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your insight.

Regards,
Steve
4/28/07<

I'm glad you liked my article. As for your question, that would depend on what foods you consume. IOW, it is not so much the caloric proportions that will cause nutrient deficiencies but what foods are eaten. If you fill up on high-fat junk foods, then yes, that could be problematic. But there are plenty of healthy high-fat foods one can eat, such as lean meats, fatty fish, olive and other healthy oils, and nuts. It is also important to consume other healthy foods, like veggies, fruit, and whole grains.

The article you read was revised and expanded into a chapter in my new book, God-given Foods Eating Plan. In that book I address the issue of hormones in many places in addition to the main chapter on the subject. I also detail what foods are healthy and what foods are not healthy. The last chapter outlines my own eating plan. So if you really want to pursue this issue, then you should attain a copy of my book. It's not possible for me to repeat all of the advice I give in that book in an email.

Subject: Post Workout Drink

>Hi Gary!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for your article Post-Workout Drink. I have been researching post-workout drinks for months now ever since I have decided to start mixing my own from scratch. I too have had the exact experience with dextrose but couldn't put my finger on what it was until I read your article. I never knew what it was in some of these post super workout drinks that I have tried out in the past that was making me fat and bulgy. I always thought it was just too many high glycemic carbs all at once and have been experimenting with it for a while now.

I accidentally put Tablespoons instead of Teaspoons of Dextrose recently while making my post workout drinks and was blown away at how big I got in a matter of days. I just figured it out today that I was doing that. Must have done it at least 3 days now. At first it looked like I was gaining mass but as the days went on I would freak out every time I stepped in front of the mirror as my waist got larger and I could see my body jiggling when I walked looking fatter and fatter by the day! I also seemed to feel full right after I would start to eat my meals and could not eat near as much as I normally did but still kept getting fatter. My metabolism has been incredibly slow compared to how it usually is, especially after a good high intense cardio session which I also have had plenty of.

Tomorrow I am going to mix my drink with straight Maltodextrin (and whey, taurine, creatine, stevia, water, and Glutamine/Vitamins A & C a little while later for transport reasons) without the Dextrose. I did catch it in time today as I was mixing my post drink. I dumped it right down the drain and re-mixed it to the proper ratio as I meant to in the first place:

Maltodextrin - 2.6 TBL
Dextrose – 3.75 TBL ---- This was wrong! should have been 3.75 tsp - oops!
Taurine 1/4 tsp (1g)
Sea Salt - A little less than 1/8 tsp
Whey – 1 scoop
Stevia - Tiny scoop
Water - 16 oz

Total = Calories 242, Protein 24g, Carbohydrates 32g, Sugar 16g, Sodium approx. 250 mg, Fat 1.5g, Taurine 1g.

I can already see the fat coming off. The reason I can tell where the extra fat came from is that I have been eating exactly the same as I always do outside of the "3 hour post workout window" so I knew it had to be somewhere in there. Your article pinpointed it head on for me as I had the exact same symptoms as you described during your experience with Dextrose.

So tomorrow's will even be way lower in sugar and about 3 grams less in carbs seeing I will not be using Dextrose (Drats! just bought a 50lb bag of the crap too!)

Anyway, thanks for posting your experiences. I was actually going to stop eating white potatoes thinking they were the culprit (I only eat them within the 3 hour post workout window) but I remembered that when I once tried Creatine HCS by AST Science I had the same problem so between remembering that and your article, it's all clear as mud now!

Thanks again & God bless you!

Sincerely,
Tony
7/24/06<

Thanks for email me. I hadn't heard of anyone else having the same problem with dextrose, so I was thinking it was just me. But it's good to know someone else has the same problem. Makes you wonder how many other people out there have gotten fat despite their best efforts to exercise, never realizing it was the post-workout drink causing the problems. Also makes you wonder why all the "experts" recommend dextrose and why so many companies sell dextrose-based post-workout products, along with creatine products with dextrose in them like the one you mentioned.

But I should mention that do not use maltodextrin anymore. I have found two things that seem to work even better. The first is brown rice syrup. I discuss this relatively healthy sweetener in my God-given Foods Eating Plan book. Unlike most sweeteners, it contains all carbs that are effective for muscle-glycogen replenishment.

Other possibilities that I mention are Rice Oligodextrin and OatMuscle, available from ProteinFactory.com. These are both low-glycemic carb sources. I know that most "experts" recommend high-glycemic carbs post-workout. But since switching to using the Rice O, I have found that my metabolism has definitely increased. I am eating more than ever and still struggling to keep my weight up! And both products retain the naturally occurring nutrients in the grains they are made from, unlike maltodextrin, which is highly refined.

Also in my book I discuss the issue of the post-workout drink in further detail than in that article and give my own recipe.

Subject: Back Pain - Thank you!

Hi Gary,

I prayed the Lord will heal me of my back, pelvis, and ankle pain. Searching the ‘Net right after prayer, I found your site, read your e-book on how you overcame your back pain. I felt the Lord was showing me that this is my problem. I ordered Sarno's and Armir's books. I would estimate about 35-40% of my pain left almost immediately but began to move around to other locations later. The pain comes back all the way, leave completely, moves around to different places, etc.

I have had x-rays and nothing is structurally wrong.  I have a lot of issues to deal with.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know the Lord used you to reveal TMS cure to me, no question about that.  Thank you Gary!

God bless,
Jimmy
1/3/07<

Thank you for letting me know. It is encouraging that my experiences are helping others. Also, with the way the pain is "moving around," that should tell you very clearly that the source of the pain is psychological not physical. I've had the same happened to me before. So you are probably on the right track in following the suggestions in my Overcoming Back Pain booklet, along with  John Sarno's Healing Back Pain and Fred Amir's Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck Pain.

Gear Update

A couple of issues ago, I posted a series of forum posts titled Powerlifting Gear, Federation, and Contest Struggles and Decisions. The posts discussed my frustrations with getting powerlifting gear that worked well for me. So I planned on lifting raw. Unfortunately, I ended up hurting my right knee pulling a heavy deadlift. And this was at the stage of my cycle that I would have added knee wraps if I was planning on lifting with gear.

It wasn't that serious, but it caused me to re-think lifting raw. The last time I tried competing raw I sustained three minor injuries. As with this time, none were serious, but still cause for concern. And with getting a minor injury once again, I felt I had no choice but to go back to lifting with gear.

To support my knee on DLs, I ordered a pair of APT knee sleeves. Wearing these supported my knee enough that I was able to finish my cycle out on DLs without problems. I also went back to using gear on squats and benches.

On the APT knee sleeves, they definitely support better than the drug store knee sleeves I was using before. For my first DL workout after the injury, my right knee bothered me some on my warm-ups without the wraps, but once I added the knee sleeves, it felt fine. So I was right about needing to go back to using gear.

One thing about the knee sleeves though, they are rather long, 22.5 cm, and that's for the small size. My next contest is IPA PA States September 22, in New Castle, PA. There is no mention in the IPA rulebook about the length of knee sleeves, but it does mention that knee wraps cannot touch your socks. So I'll have to fold the top of my socks down. I remember I always had to do that in college since I usually wore knee-high socks. Also, the APF rulebook specifies that knee sleeves can only be 20 cm long. So if I ever enter another APF contest, I will have to have them cut down.

But despite those caveats, they are good wraps. If anyone is interested, they can be purchased at: APT Inc. For a video of me deadlifting with the knee sleeves, click here.

The prices have been lowered for the paperback and both eBook formats for my God-given Foods Eating Plan book. Follow the link for details.

All material in this newsletter is copyrighted © 2007 by Gary F. Zeolla or as indicated otherwise.

6/21/07