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Monday, November 26, 2007

Alli Weight Loss Pill Worth It?

The Alli Diet Pill
So over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was asked about the new weight loss drug Alli. Alli's claim to fame is that it is the only FDA approved, over-the-counter weight loss product. (It's made by made by Glaxo Smith Kline)

So how does this Weight Loss "Alli" work?
According to their website, the Alli diet pill works by blocking 25% of the fat you eat from being digested. Sounds awesome right? "I can eat pizza, burgers, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Alli will block 25% of the fat in the food from being digested?"

Not so fast.

So how does Alli block the fat from being absorbed?
Here's a quick science lesson. Alli, which you also may know as Orlistat, is derived from a bacteria that stops your body from producing the natural enzyme that breaks down dietary fat. This enzyme- pancreatic lipase, actually breaks down fat molecules into smaller droplets, able to continue on in the digestive tract.

So, Alli inhibits the fat you eat from from being broken down. Quite simply, if it can't be broken down, it can't be absorbed by the body. If it can't be absorbed, it doesn't provide calories.

So what happens to the fat that Alli blocked from being absorbed?
Ahh, this is where the idea of Alli goes south. Literally. Mess with your digestive system and it could make a mess of you. Since the fat goes unchanged, it basically speeds through the digestive tract through the bowels.

According to users of Alli, it sometimes makes it's way out of your body without you even knowing it! In fact, on their website, under the treatment effects section, they advise you that "it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work".

I'll stop there.

To avoid the side effects of Alli, they advise you not to take in more than 15 grams of fat per meal, or about 45 grams per day total. This provides an interesting situation. Since their product works on eliminating fat, they're suggesting a low- fat diet.

Low fat diets are generally less effective than moderate fat diets. Here's why:

A low fat diet assumes a rise in carbohydrate, to make up for the energy loss from the fat calories. An increase in carbohydrate intake generally causes you to feel more hungry, due to insulin spikes and quick digestion of the carbs.

So now what? You're hungry, but you can't eat more carbs because you'll eat too many total calories. You can't eat fat because then.... well, you know. Hmm.

Higher carbohydrate, lower fat diets are difficult to adhere to. They provide much less satiety, making it more difficult to avoid overeating. High carb diets also maintain a higher, steady insulin level, making it more difficult to release body fat as fuel.

A lower to moderate carb diet with moderate fat intake provides satiety, meaning less cravings and urge to cheat or binge. A moderate fat intake also helps stabilize insulin levels, making it easier for body fat to be released into the blood stream for fuel. It also takes longer to digest, adding to it's satiety effect.

So does Alli help you lose weight?
As you know, weight loss comes down to creating a caloric deficit. You must be taking in less calories than you're burning over a period of time. Eliminating a portion of your calories big enough to create a caloric deficit will result in weight loss. Alli can help the caloric deficit if you are committed enough to perform your exercises, eat less total calories, and put up with the side effects.

It wouldn't be easy, but it can be done. However, a proper diet can easily provide the same weight loss effects, minus the need for pills and new pants.

One more thing I want to tackle here on Alli; a study was done that showed a 37% reduction in the incidence of type II diabetes in obese patience. This is indeed good news. However, I wouldn't be so fast to attribute this to Alli itself. These results are consistent with what we already know about weight loss. Losing weight (especially from obese) improves just about every marker of health in the human body.

In the end, I'd go with the proven, healthy, no side effect, diet and exercise program.

Labels: Alli Lose Weight, Alli Weight Loss Pill, Block Fat From Being Absorbed, Creating a Caloric Deficit, Side Effects of Alli

posted by Michael Collins @ 7:47 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A few tips to make sure your hard work doesn't go down the drain on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a couple of days away and there's gonna be tons of delicious, physique blurring foods everywhere.

As hard as you work all year, you should enjoy yourself and your family. Here are a few quick pointers on enjoying yourself while not sacrificing your results.

1) Perform the toughest workout of the week on Thursday morning. Whether you do full body workouts, or you like to split your workout into pushing/ pulling exercises or body part splits.

Performing the workout before the big feast will allow your body to use the feast to it's advantage. A good portion of the feast will go toward recovery of glycogen stores and muscle repair- instead of fat stores.

After the workout, your muscles are like a sponge waiting to soak up all the nutrients. You'll also benefit from ,.

2) If you're hosting Thanksgiving and simply have no time to get to the gym, perform Eugene's 7.5 minute Tabata workout- it's a workout that can be done at home, and is stimulates the metabolism like wildfire. You'll also get all the benefits mentioned above.

3) Drink a whole bunch of water (or as the professionals say, stay hydrated). Keep a bottle of water (or green tea with some lemon squeezed in for flavor) by your side at all times. You're much better off getting those calories from food instead of drinking them.

If you're the one hosting and or preparing everything, it can get hot in the kitchen. You'll also be running around to stores and stress levels can get up there. Water helps quench your thirst and helps ease the stress. Usually, the meal itself will contain copious amounts of sodium and getting a consistent flow of fresh fluids will help you from getting bloated.

4) Eat the vegetables first in the meal. This will help cut down on gorging on the other stuff. The fiber fills you up quick and you'll be less likely to go crazy on the stuffing and pies.

5) Eat the turkey and other proteins first. There's not that many calories in turkey, compared to the to the other goodies on the table. Protein also fills you up quicker. (below are some more reasons for eating turkey before the stuffing and other goodies)

6) Try the green apple trick. Green apples have pectin- a fiber that takes fills you up, as well as a natural chemical that satiates you

7) ~~Instead of the Thanksgiving Turkey, have tofurkey, the tofu shaped as a turkey.~~

Eat your damn turkey and enjoy it! Don't listen to the fun killing food police. Turkey, believe it or not is an excellent source of protein and does NOT make you tired. Eugene told us why.

Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!

posted by Michael Collins @ 12:10 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Gain an Extra Hour in Your Day; Stop Wasting Your Time With (Unnecessary) Warm- Up Sets!

Most gym goers could cut their gym time in half if they got rid of all the extra “warm up” sets before each exercise.

When you hit the gym, do you head for the treadmill or bike for 15 or 20 minutes to warm up? Are you warming up, then stretching for 10 minutes to get “warm and loose”?

Stop! It's a silly waste of time. Even worse, it can actually hinder you're progress!

Far too many times I see this scenario in the gym- the long warm up, followed by the long unnecessary stretch session, followed up with 5 or 6 sets of really light weight on the first exercise to “warm up the area”. Enormous waste of time.

“Yeah, but I'll get injured if I don't warm up and stretch before the workout”

No you wont. Studies have shown that stretching does not decrease the rate of injury. In fact, thoroughly stretching before a set will actually cause a decrease in the amount of force you can generate, resulting in less weight being used, and less stimulus for your body to respond to.

Definitely not what we want.

As for warming up, a quick, thorough warm up is beneficial to performance and should be handled properly. 20 minutes on the cardio equipment plus a bunch of warm up sets on the first exercise is nothing but an energy drain. I've written about the proper way to warm up here.

The first sets of an exercise are to acclimate the body to the weight. Acclimation sets are not grabbing the bar, cranking out 12 quick reps, adding a few pounds, cranking out another bunch of reps.

You want to acclimate the body. On the first warm up set, use a moderate weight, and perform 8 reps slowly. On the second set, increase the weight to about 75% of your top weight for the workout, and again, perform 6 slow reps. At this point you should be ready for action.

Let me add one more huge point here...

Once you're warm... you're warm!

Let's say you're doing a chest workout and you begin with bench press. If you're going to do incline press or decline press, or dumbbell press or whatever after, you don't need to warm up the chest again! The muscles and tissues of the area are already warm.

If you're working your back and start with barbell rows, there's no reason to warm up again before doing pull downs or weighted pull ups or (insert your exercise here).

In fact, you don't need to warm up the secondary muscles either; lets say you're going to hit biceps after back. There's absolutely no reason to warm the biceps up with 3 or 4 sets of light curls before you get down to business, because they're warm too!

If you're working on a totally different body part, simply perform 1 acclimation set. This is all that's needed.

With all the extra time you have left over from cutting out the unnecessary sets, you can spend more time with family, work on a new project, and read our Black Book of Secrets- everything you need to know to build a lean, healthy, energetic body, quickly. Much better options to spend your time!

Labels: cardio equipment, healthy, lean, stretching, treadmill, warm up

posted by Michael Collins @ 2:35 PM 0 comments

Saturday, November 3, 2007

NYC Marathon is Upon Us- Learn What Foods To Eat To Avoid The Gaunt Look!

So the NYC marathon is tomorrow. A grueling 26.2 mile jaunt through the streets of the 5 boroughs. A thorough challenge for both mind and body. This race attracts the best of the best in the world of marathon running.

Over the years, I've worked with a number of distance runners- the majority of which were the seasoned veterans who through reading or other methods, realized that strength training was a major key to improving their performance and preventing injury.

See, running a marathon is brutal on the body. Not only the marathon itself, but the training for the marathon. Thousands of hours and millions of steps pounding the pavement each year. This adds up and takes it's toll on the joints and ligaments of the body.

I'd noticed that the runner's that I'd been working with had several things in common. Although they were in what they considered "tip top condition" for running a marathon- almost all of them had bad posture, were generally scrawny, and their faces- especially their skin looked like hell.

The posture and "scrawny" issues were dealt with during the strength training exercises we went through. The rest was an intake issue.

See, when you're putting your body through the incredible pounding, stress and oxygen consumption, you're building up tons of free radicals in the body. The more you train, the more you make. These free radicals are charged up molecules that like to scrap with your healthy, vital cells, like a game of Arkanoid.

This scrapping can lead to the breakdown of healthy tissue in the body- muscle, joints, cartilage and skin. If you've ever had an up close look at a seasoned marathon runner, chances are you've seen this damage first hand.

Unless... they read MCNewsletters and know to eat a diet chock full of antioxidants!

Antioxidants catch up to the free radicals and "quench" them. They settle the free radicals down and render them harmless.

Getting copious amounts of antioxidants through foods like fruits and vegetables and select meats can greatly reduce the deleterious, quick aging effects of free radicals due to training.

My favorites happen to be blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. For more on antioxidants and free radicals- and for a great list of foods that contain antioxidants- check out Eat More Berries, Lose More Fat: Antioxidants Explained by Eugene Thong

Labels: antioxidant foods, antioxidants, free radicals, NYC Marathon, preventing injury, strength training

posted by Michael Collins @ 5:03 PM 0 comments

Friday, November 2, 2007

The World Plays Catch- Up; "An Apple a Day Keeps the Calories at Bay"

So, a few days ago, USA Today prints an article "An Apple a Day Keeps the Calories at Bay".

Apparently a new study was done that showed that "people who ate an apple about 15 minutes before lunch consumed almost 190 fewer calories than when they didn't have the apple."

This was big enough news that it made the front page of Yahoo!

Hmmm...

Seems they aren't readers of MCNewsletters.com, where we posted our own informal study which yielded similar results in The Green Apple (Mini) Project a year ago...

It pays to be a subscriber of MCNewsletters. You get cutting edge nutrition and workout info a year before anyone else!

P.S. If you think the green apple project is a pretty cool trick to help with your weight loss, we'll knock your socks off with our Black Book of Secrets.

Labels: consume fewer calories, green apple, weight loss

posted by Michael Collins @ 8:26 PM 0 comments