STEAK. IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER.

So this week I am going to talk about protein and focus on one major question: Do we need to drink protein shakes after a workout?

Amino Acid Chain

Protein is an energy-yielding, large, and complex macronutrient composed of amino acids. The main purpose of protein is to build and repair muscle. Protein is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The nitrogen gives protein the unique ability to repair muscle tissue (Bushman). Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and there are 20 amino acids in the body. They can be combined to make up to 50,000 different proteins! There are 9 essential amino acids and 11 nonessential proteins. The “essential” name does not mean that they are more important but that they are the ones that our body cannot make and that we need to consume via foods.

Bushman, Barbara Ann., and Rebecca Battista. ACSM's Resources for the Personal Trainer. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Helath, 2014. Print.

There are two main types of protein: complete and incomplete proteins. Complete proteins contain all 9 essential amino acids and as you might have guessed incomplete proteins do not provide all 9 essential amino acids. The best complete sources of protein in animals are egg whites, beef, chicken, tuna (other fish as well), and milk. In vegetables the only complete source of protein is soy beans. There are other great sources of protein that are incomplete such as beans, whole grains, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. We need to consume a large variety of these foods to give us the most complete dietary intake of protein.

                

Every single person needs different amounts of proteins based on their age, sex, and weight. According to the ACSM, the daily percentages of our diet for each major macronutrient is roughly:

• 45-65% from carbohydrates (6-10g/kg body weight)
• 12-15% from protein (see below)
• 20-35% from fat (around .9g/kg body weight) (Bushman). 

Harvard Medical Food Pyramid

From this information you can see the easy discrepancy on how much more carbohydrates we need versus fat and protein. We need around .8g protein/ kg body weight. Pregnant women, intense athletes, and growing adolescents need more. The more intense the athlete (recreational versus Olympian) the more protein they need. The upper limit for anyone should be around 1.5-1.7g/kg of body weight. This is usually only reserved for vegetarian strength athletes. So if you are like me and are a

normal athlete you only need around .8-1.0g/kg of body weight.

I will break this down a little easier to understand how much protein we actually need. I weigh roughly 175 pounds or 79kg. (1kg= 2.2pounds). So that means, that if I need around 2500 calories per day and am eating a pretty normal diet of 60% carbs, 15% protein, and 25% fat then I need:

• Carbs: 2500 x .60= 1,500 calories. Or 79kg x 8g = 632g of carbohydrate per day
• Fat: 2500 x .25= 625 calories. Or 79kg x .9g= 71.1g of fat per day.
• Protein: 2500 x .15= 375 calories. Or 79kg x .8g= 63.2g of protein per day

The next question we have after this knowledge is how should we get this protein? I will use the math I did above for my body as a reference point but I need roughly 63g of protein per day if I am eating around 2500 calories. We can get this protein from the foods we eat or we can add in or substitute a protein shake to get the amount of protein we need. According to the Muscle Milk Graham Cracker protein powder gives you roughly 16g of protein in one scoop  (Vitamin Shoppe Muscle Milk Powder). That is around 1/5 of the protein that I need in one day. Now that does not seem like a whole lot of protein but...I will show how you can EASILY get that amount of protein in one day through natural foods and no supplementation.

Breakfast
2 eggs= 14g of protein
1 cup of Milk- 8g of protein

Lunch

2oz of cheddar cheese= 16g of protein
1.75oz turkey breast= 15g of protein

Dinner
4oz hamburger- 28g of protein

Total- 81grams of protein

Choose My Plate Food Groups

So if you eat this simple daily meal you can get around 81g of protein. That is how easy you can get protein in your body. Also this does not account for other things you eat throughout the day that may give you even more protein. So the question is should I take a protein shake?

In my biased opinion, I always tell people that you should strive to consume your macronutrients and calories from natural foods rather than supplements. It can be done pretty easily and personally, I would rather eat those foods than a protein shake. Now if you are looking to bulk up,are training incredibly hard for a marathon, or are a very active individual then supplementing with a protein shake is not always a poor decision. I am just trying to give you the facts about protein so you can make your own choices in regards to your diet. I personally have never taken a protein shake or supplement but I know people  that swear by them. Protein is a very important part of our diet and is something that we should consume every single day.

There are however benefits to a little extra protein and also problems with too much protein. I will cover both of these in my next blog. So stay tuned!

NEXT WEEK: PROTEIN PART 2/ "IF I WORK OUT WITH WEIGHTS, WILL I BULK UP?"

B-E-A-UTIFUL

So this week I want to cover an aspect of mental health that I come across every single day in the gym. The bit I gave you last post for this week was PBS. This stands for Pretty Boy Syndrome. That is the habit that a lot of people have of looking into the mirror after each bicep curl or sit-up to look and see if their muscle has grown any more or  gelling your hair before you go get sweaty. Why do we do that? Why do men and women at the gym feel embarrassed about how they look or about what shape they are in. Why?

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'"

1 Samuel 16:7

Our world and culture is shaped and pushed by searching for the “perfect body”. We work out, diet, and push ourselves to get this perfect body. One of the biggest problems with this idea is that there is NO “perfect” body but fashion companies, makeup companies, and Hollywood project their ideal onto us. In our society you must be young, tan, have a 0% body fat, and always covered in makeup to be beautiful. This is sadly one reason a lot of people work out and work to get into shape. These are called extrinsic motivations. That means that the only reason you are doing it is to appeal to an outside influence (such as others).

Now, what I am not saying, is that we should not work out just to spite the clothing companies. We still need to go get our weekly amount of exercise. The benefits of exercise are immense. BUT, what I am trying to get across is that our culture has so screwed with our heads that when it comes to exercise, we do it purely to strive for the media's idea of perfection. We need to search for the intrinsic motivators that we have. Intrinsic motivators are the reasons we exercise that come from within. These can be from a love of being outside, the feeling you have after a workout, or the increased health benefits that will allow you to play with your grandchildren. These are the reasons that we should be motivated to work out and exercise, not because the Victoria Secret fashion show makes you feel fat.

This cultural ideal of perfection has also caused a lot of self-esteem issues. Self-esteem is defined as feelings of self worth (Myers). People that have a lowered self-esteem are more likely to disparage others, express greater racial prejudice (Ybara, 1999), tend to be thinned-skin and judgmental (Baumgarnder et al., 1989), and often become excessively critical (Amabile, 1983). This is the negative while people who feel good about themselves have fewer sleepless nights, succumb less easily to pressures to conform, are more persistent at difficult tasks; are less shy, anxious, and lonely (Greenberg, 2008). So when we are constantly seeing on the television about what is beautiful and then we see the difference between that person and ourselves it can cause a lowered view of ourselves.

1. Ybarra, O. (1999). Misanthropic person memory when the need to self-enhance is absent. Personality and Social psychology Bulletin, 25, 261-269.

2. Baumgarnder, A. H., Kaufman, C. M., & Levy, P. E. (1989). Regulating affect interpersonally: When low esteem leads to greater enhancement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 817-827. 

3. Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer-Verlag.

4. Greenberg, J. (2008). Understanding the vital human quest for self-esteem. Perspectives on Psychological Science,3, 48-55.

5. Myers, David D. Psychology. New York: Worth, 2004. Print.

My point in all of this is just to bring to light that, as hard as it might seem, there is no true definition of beauty. Our goal is to find pleasure and enjoyment in exercise because of how it makes us feel internally and what the added health benefits allow us to accomplish, NOT to exercise for the hope that other people will find us beautiful. We are all created in God’s perfect image and he made us the exact way for that reason. So I implore you to remember this as you head to the gym today. Find an internal motivation and enjoy whatever exercise you do. Just remember, You do You.

Even if your exercise looks like this...

MUSCLE(s) of the Body

And now, moving on to the most interesting muscle in the world. Yes, this will be a little biased (and I am actually going to combine two into one) but I hope I can convince you to think the way I do. There is a lot of competition for this coveted award between the popular biceps brachii, to the powerful gluteus maximus, to the fun-to-say sternocleidomastoid, and to the humorous tensor fasciae latae. But to me these are not the most interesting muscle in the world.  To me, the most interesting muscle in the body is the iris. Yes, if you fact check me the iris is actually made of two muscles (circular to contract, and radial to dilate) but I am counting it as one. The iris is not the most important or the most powerful but it is still really interesting.

I don't always have blue eyes... wait, yes I do.

First off, the iris is the only colored muscle in the entire body. I could stop right there and still think it is pretty cool. The main function of the iris is to contract and dilate the pupil depending on the light. The iris will dilate when there is low light and constrict when there is a lot of light. One reason that this is so cool is because of the speed and ability to constantly adjust based on the light. If you are sitting in a normally lit room, glance at an open window that is very sunny, and then look down at the book you are reading, your iris will have changed the size of the pupil multiple times. I think it is so cool how fast and how accurate the iris is to make sure that you are constantly seeing the appropriate amount of late to either allow you to see in dim light or protect the cornea from too much light.

Lastly, we perceive others to be more attractive when their pupils are dilated. This is the main reason that we determined candle-light settings to be more romantic. We see the other person as more attractive when their pupils are larger. There is a tip for all of you guys out there, let the woman of your dreams look deep into your eyes when it is dim out there! The whole body is awesome and incredible and so the iris is just one amazing muscle of the entire body.

Workout of the week:

This workout can be done at home with no weights or the sit-ups, lunges, squats, and Dumbbell Thrusters can all be done with weights or with anything that is heavy (i.e. milk jugs, bricks, rocks) or anything that you have lying around the house. Do each of these exercises for 45 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds. During those 45 seconds, do as many repetitions as possible. Do entire list three times.  

1. Jumping Jacks

2. Sit-ups

3. Pushups

4. Lunges Forward

5. Lunges Backward

6. Squats

7. Dips (on a bench or couch edge)

8. Burpees

9. Planks

10. Mountain Climbers

11. Swimmer Kicks

12. Burpees (again)

NEXT POST: THE MYSTERY BEHIND PROTEIN

BURN, BABY, BURN!

Can you actually spot reduce fat?

     When I am talking to people about their goals or what they are wanting to improve on their body I hear a lot of them say, “I want to trim my belly” or “I want to take away some of the fat from my arms”. Or as one woman told me the other day, “I want for when I wave my arms, for my arms to not keep waving back at me.” So we all have an area that we want to work on, right? Well the question then is, if I work out that specific area like crazy will I zap the fat there? In short: no. But keep reading if you want to learn!

     I will start very general and talk about the energy balance that our body is constantly in. Our body needs energy for everything we do and we pay for that by spending calories. So anything as basic as our heart pumping to running a marathon we need energy to complete it. In order for us to get energy we need to eat and give our body the right nutrients to pay the price. As we eat, we take in calories that then get used for energy. This is all well and good if we are staying in an energy balance which means that we are using as many calories as we are taking in.

     The next question is how many calories should I take in? Well our bodies all burn different amounts based on age, weight, and sex. The calories that we burn just being awake (even if we sat on the couch all day) is called our metabolism. To figure out how many calories we burn with our metabolism, you can use these equations: (This is called the Harris-Benedict Formula. Where BMR stands for basal metabolic rate)

BMR Men= 66 + (6.23 x pounds body weight) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.76 x years of age)

BMR Women= 655 + (4.35 x pounds body weight) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x years of age)

     This is our daily amount burned even if we are sitting on the couch doing nothing. But if we are exercising we can add calories for as much as we exercise. According to bmrcalculator.org we can use this chart to figure out how many calories to take in:

Activity Level	Description	Formula
Low	You get little to no exercise	Calories Burned a Day = BMR x 1.2
Light	You exercise lightly (1-3 days per week)	Calories Burned a Day = BMR x 1.375
Moderate	You exercise moderately (3-5 days per week)	Calories Burned a Day = BMR x 1.55
High	You exercise heavily (6-7 days per week)	Calories Burned a Day = BMR x 1.725
Very High	You exercise very heavily (i.e. 2x per day, extra heavy workouts)	Calories Burned a Day = BMR x 1.9

     The problem comes when we do not use those extra calories that we take in for exercise. When we eat over our recommended intake [BMR x exercise] we take those extra calories and store them as fat for later use. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories and so as we put more calories into our bodies that we end up not using for exercise we slowly accumulate fat. Everyone stores fat in different ways and places. Men mostly store their fat in their stomach viscerally (under the muscle and around major organs) and subcutaneously (under the skin). Women usually store it in their hips, arms, and thighs. So the question is now, how do we get rid of that fat?

Jim really knows how to burn as few calories as possible!

     Consistent training of specific muscles can increase muscle tone, which can give a slimming appearance and if hypertrophy (muscles getting bigger) is done a more defined appearance can appear.  However, there is no evidence that shows fat is mobilized preferentially from the adipose cells located near active muscles (1). This means that if you are going out and doing thousands of sit-ups to burn that belly fat, all you are really doing is making those muscles stronger and more defined. A study done by Katch et al. (2) tested 13 men on a 27 day training program that consisted of a total of 5,004 sit-ups. There were no significant changes that occurred in body fat percentage, skinfold, or girth measurements. There was a reduction in adipose (fat) cell size but that difference was the same in the abdominal region as well as the non-exercised gluteal and subscapular regions. This shows that even if you work your muscles like crazy you won’t get those six-pack abs right away.

 (1) (Plowman, Sharon A, and Denise L. Smith. Exercise Physiology for Health, Fitness, and Performance. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print. 

(2) (Frank I. Katch, Priscilla M. Clarkson, Walter Kroll, Thomas McBride, Anthony Wilcox. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.Vol. 55, Iss. 3, 1984)

The white areas are fat.

      The reduction of fat is more focused on a whole body increase in burning calories. Fat is mobilized to be used as fuel for the body hormonally and hormones circulate to all parts of the body (1). That means that as you are exercising; your body is taking fat from all different regions of the body to use as fuel. The best way to get rid of fat then is to go into a calorie deficit (burn more than you are taking in). This could be from eating fewer calories than you need, exercising, or a combination of the two. As you burn calories your body will slowly use the fat from the whole body which will slowly reduce the amount of fat in one specific area.

 
  So the real way to fight that excess fat that we have is to watch number of calories that we eat and exercise. Good Luck!

Challenge/Tip of the Day:

     Everyone has a weak spot when it comes to their diet. Mine is cereal. I LOVE me some cereal and I have a hard time stopping myself when it comes to sugary cereals like Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles. These calories are called are called empty calories (calories that provide little or no nutritional value). So my challenge for today is to cut out that one weakness you have ONE time this week. So if you come home from work and just have to have a cookie or a beer, replace that one time this week with an apple or a glass of water respectively. I know it isn't easy but I am right there with you. Once you can make this change one a week you can slowly start to make the healthy choice more often than not and you will save yourself an extra few hundred calories each week! As we talked about above, the best way to reduce fat is to cut down on total calories stored (which can come from reducing calories eaten). This is one great way to start!

NEXT BLOG: PBS and the Most Interesting Muscle in the Body

HELLO INTERNET WORLD!

So I don't know any other way to introduce an health and exercise blog other than this:

     So I did it. I started a blog and I am not really sure how I feel about it. What is even worse is this is a blog about health, fitness, and exercise. I am actually one of THOSE people now... In my defense, I am not writing this blog to impress or to show off my wonderful accomplishments. This blog will NOT have pictures of me drinking coffee in Italy, crossing the finish line of a 100 mile race, or even videos of me lifting weights. Shocker to find in an amateur blog, right? The purpose of this blog is almost more for me than it is for you who read it.

This is what I live for!

     I have slowly discovered, with the help of my girlfriend Tayla, that I am what some people might call a nerd. I was the student that actually read my anatomy book for fun, I also bought an anatomy coloring book (for fun). I relished in the time I got to spend in the lab in college. I miss reading peer reviewed articles about the bodies response to exercise. I recently just told Tayla that I missed Anatomy class. I mean what 23 year old guy misses memorizing and labeling nerves? This guy. Well actually, bones and muscles are my favorite but still.  So as I write out my thoughts, research found, and interesting facts about the human body I hope that you can gain something  from what I say.
 
     While I write this for me, I also have discovered that there are many people out there with very wrong and ill-gotten ideas about health and fitness. There are so many diets, exercise crazes, and pills out there I can see why people are sometimes confused about their own health. So one of my goals of this blog is to correct some miss-information, debunk popular myths, and give easy and practical tips to become a healthier individual.  So another question you might have for me "Why the name Smart FITT"? Well smart, because that is how you will feel after you read this blog and FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type. This is the acronym used and loved by personal trainers and academics to tell how much and how often you should do different types of exercises such as cardio, weight training, flexibility etc. This blog will help piece together and give advice about the correct, smart (duh), and proper ways to train and live a healthy life.So, as I wrote above, this blog is for me to get my inner nerd out and hopefully as I do that, you will gain some important knowledge and see how interesting the body can be. My goal is to not judge, laugh at, or make you feel dumb but to instruct and show you how easy and fun living a healthy lifestyle can be!

PS. Look forward to my first topic: Can you actually spot reduce fat?

PPS. Feel free to comment and suggest topics or questions that you have!