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Eat More Berries, Lose More Fat: Antioxidants Explained
By Eugene Thong, CSCS
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 What do
antioxidants and a bike helmet have in common?
Well, if you're
like a friend of mine, both play a huge role in limiting the damage from
exercise!
Additionally,
antioxidants provide nutritional support for your fat loss efforts (as
we'll discover later in this article). But first:
What are antioxidants?
Antioxidants are
nutrients (and enzymes) that
fight free radicals, which are charged
molecules that roam around like rogues, looking to combine with random
molecules in the body and start trouble.
A friend of mine
recently flew off of his bike and face planted on the concrete (with no
helmet on - ouch). His unfortunate tumble provides a perfect metaphor
for free radical damage:
Free radicals are
like my friend on his runaway bike, on a collision course with whatever
chance molecule that happens to get in their way. When my friend hit the
pavement, his body had to absorb the massive amount of kinetic energy -
resulting in considerable damage to his face, arms, and hands.
The same thing
happens when free radicals "collide" with molecules in your body.
Free radicals damage molecules by combining with them, changing
otherwise healthy molecules into instable versions of themselves.
Left unchecked,
free radical damage causes a host of undesirable effects in your body,
from accelerated aging to cancer.
Obviously, free
radicals are scoundrels that need serious corralling. But where's
the sheriff?
Enter the mighty
antioxidant. Antioxidants neutralize free radical activity by combining
with them, and like fire and water, the two cancel each other out.
There are many
different antioxidants, all with uniquely compelling names, like
glutathione, lycopene, and superoxide dismutase. Luckily, you
don’t need to remember any of them to ensure you get plenty in your
diet.
The best ways you can combat free radical damage and boost your
antioxidant intake are:
1. Diet.
It's no small
coincidence that the foods with the highest antioxidant concentrations
happen to be the same foods that best support fat burning. By maxing
your antioxidant intake, you can kill two birds with one stone.
Berries
- contain polyphenols and bioflavonoids in massive quantities. In
English, they contain high levels of antioxidants, are low-sugar, and
high fiber. In short, a nutritional winner and a must-have in your
fat loss program.
Meat
– contains Vitamin E, selenium, and glutathione (well, to be perfectly
accurate, your body synthesizes glutathione from the BCAAs in meat).
Meat – great for fat loss, antioxidant warehouse.
Cruciferous
(leafy green) vegetables
– contain carotenoids, glutathione, Vitamins A, C, and E,
isothiocyanates, and whole lotta other stuff. Just eat your
broccoli already.
Hmm. That
list of foods to eat looks eerily familiar. I wonder where I’ve
seen it before?
2. Exercise
Here's the
unpleasant truth: exercise increases free radical production in your
body. After all, you are introducing a major stressor (or you're
just not working out hard enough to produce changes).
What we're chiefly
concerned with here is limiting the damage from exercising. You
can do that through time management in the gym; i.e., getting more done
in less time.
Use this
time-saving tip we wrote about to help shave time off your
weight room visits, and make the most out of your cardio work by using
intervals.
It's not just
healthier for you to exercise more efficiently; you'll get better
results from it as well.
To summarize:
Maximize your workouts by getting the biggest bang for your buck.
3.
Supplementation.
Sometimes diet and
exercise just aren't enough. If you're under attack from a lot of
external stressors (like pollution, job stress, sleeplessness, etc.),
then your body's such a free radical party that you should consider
taking an antioxidant supplement.
I'd like to offer
a disclaimer here:
Antioxidants in
their natural state are found in foods along with hundreds of other
compounds, some of which act synergistically to increase antioxidant
absorption (like Vitamin E and selenium, for example).
By taking these
supplements in pill or powder form, you’re getting an isolated (and
hence, less effective) dose of antioxidant goodness. If you can,
eat it first. But, if you can’t get it solely through diet, then
by all means, get it.
Ok, back to your
regularly scheduled article…
Supplementation is
a very personal thing, and is something that you should discuss with a
healthcare professional, like your doctor. The ones with the best
research behind them are Vitamins C and E, glutathione, selenium, CoQ10,
and alpha lipoic acid.
In the rush to
lose pounds and inches for this wedding and that premier, people have
tried some truly insane regimens, and most of them stink (boiled cabbage
soup for 7 days? I’d rather cut my head off to lose that 10 pounds).
Moreover, many
popular fad diets are unbalanced and unhealthy, setting the stage for
weight regain – and then some – when your body decides it’s had enough.
You’ve got to
approach this fat loss thing intelligently, and with the long-term in
mind. It’s no good if you lose 5 pounds this week only to gain
back 7 next week (and deplete yourself of nutrients in the process).
To think that
eating for fat loss was eating healthy, too. Will wonders never
cease?
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About the Author:
Eugene Thong, CSCS, was born a weak, skinny,
bespectacled child. Now, thanks to a steady diet of martial arts,
scientific inquiry, and heavy compound movements, he's no longer weak.
His scientific bent, Zen-like demeanor, and efficient but intense
methods have made him one of New York's most sought-after personal
trainers.
 When
not helping clients cultivate their own inner 6-packs, Eugene can be found
arm barring opponents at Renzo Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy or
sailing through the air on his snowboard. Read Eugene's semi-weekly musings
on exercise, fitness, and fat loss
at his blog
Eugene is Mike's co-author of The Black Book of Secrets- The Bible of
Effective Weight Loss.
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