Human Biochemistry, the basics as relating to dieting.

[thorfinn]

Some of you have probably seen this before in other fora, and I've mean to post it up here for a while, but hadn't summoned enough round tuits. A reasonable chunk of my audience here are quite aware of this stuff already, but there's also plenty who aren't. If you're one of the former, feel free to drop corrections in if any are spotted. And if

Comments

Well explained

[my_ichiban]

Cool. You give a nice explanation of energy use by the body. ( was feeling the cobwebs being removed when you talked about the sytems)

I will say that anyone who does make changes need to make sure that they drink plenty of WATER.
LACTIC acid can also build up in the muscles after exercise if a person is dehydrated.
It is important that people drink small amounts during exercise.
"Hunger pains" can sometimes be dehydration.

actually there is a lot that can be said about the benefits of water after my brief ramble.

Re: Well explained

[thorfinn]

Yay, yes, water good. That's one of the most likely issues to be struck by people increasing the amount of exercise they do... Water balance gets thrown out, for a variety of reasons. Breathing causes water-loss (dry air into lungs, water laden air comes out), as does sweating. Also note - salt balance is important. Your kidneys control whether they let out salts or keep them in based on bloodstream concentrations, but sweat always has salts in it. This is the "electrolytes" that they talk about in "sports drinks". A bit of salt (whether in food or drink or whatever) is good after sweating, because you need to make up the salt from somewhere.

Re: Well explained

[damien_wise]

Aaah, sports drinks...
My rule-of-the-thumb for them goes something like: If it tastes revolting, you don't need it and should stop there. If you take a sip and proceed to gulp-down an entire bottle in one hit, then you made the right choice.
*shrug* that's just me, though...funny how that mechanism is so pronounced. :)
What I can't understand is how people will drink the stuff when they're not (or haven't been) exercising. Doesn't their body tell them to back-off? Are they so deluded that they're thinking: "Fit people drink this stuff, so the more I drink, the fitter it'll make me"? [Yes, I've heard this argument and it's so wrong that it's scary to hear people say it.]
Same story with salt in food. There are very few occasions where I'll add salt to food while cooking, and usually that's when I want it to taste salty. then-again, there are times when I'll get a craving and gobble a pack of chips/crisps (yuuum, Kettle Chips).
</rant>

Anyway, ta for yet another highly informative and excellently expressed article, Thorf.

Re: Well explained

[thorfinn]

Completely agreed on the "drinkability" of sports drinks. As for "most people"... Most people are really not used to paying attention to their bodies. Remember, the "average person" drinks a lot of soft-drink filled with sugar... Their palate isn't used to paying attention to what's really needed by the body.

Re: Well explained

[my_ichiban]

People do have to retrain themselves. i did this recently with a few friends, who would only drink soft drinks and coffee. They have found that they have more energy, get less headaches AND
i have noticed that they smell better :)

With sports drinks the only time i have drunk them is when i am hungover OR just completed the Pier to Pub swim at Lorne. I don't believe that day to day drinking of sports drinks is helpful. Although i am sure it is better then a daily intake of Coke.

Re: Well explained

[kitling]

Insert rant here about the amount of sugar 'sports' drinks contain

Re: Well explained

[thorfinn]

Yar. They're designed to be drunk during exercise. I.e., when there is reasonably high glucose demand. That's actually fine, because the sugar gets used when it hits the bloodstream and doesn't hang around to produce fat or result in raised and too high insulin levels (which in turn results in "sugar crash"). And sports drinks have less sugar than soft drinks...

Re: Well explained

[tyggerjai]

Yep. It's a feature. If you already have too much sugar in your diet - don't drink sports drinks. If you don't, then they're an excellent way of replenishing your stocks at the best time - when exercising

Re: Well explained

[thorfinn]

*nodnod* More fun yet, if you actually do put your body into starvation mode (this is what worries me about ketosis diets), it bloody well stays there. It literally flicks a big switch on the biochemistry, that says "St0R3 L1p1DZ F4ZT!!!!" and that switch stays on for a very very long time, even after you are back to not starving.

Re: Well explained

[tyggerjai]

The other scary thing is that AFAIK your body doesn't care how much fat you already have, the starvation mode trigger is pretty much purely input vs output over a shortish period of time. So even if you already have lots of fat, you can still go into shutdown mode if you try to lose it too quickly.

sol.
.

Re: Well explained

[tyggerjai]

On the bright side, it means I can justify continuing to eat ... robustly even while trying to lose weight :)

sol.
.

Re: Well explained

[thorfinn]

That's because you're not trying to "lose weight". You're trying to increase fitness and health, which is a vastly different, and much better!, thing.

Re: Well explained

[tyggerjai]

Ironically, you're wrong :)
I am, in fact, pretty much trying to lose fat and gain muscle mass. Increased fitness & health is good, but it's a side effect - I actually just got sick of not being able to whip my shirt off in public. Pure vanity.

I'm still not trying to "lose weight" so much as "lose fat" - I have no problems with remaining ±100 kg if it's 100 Kg of rippling, Vin Diesel-esque muscle. But my stated desires for this process are a Vin Diesel-esque physique, and a 32" waist. Not "increased fitness". Fortunately, the best way to get the physique coincides with increased health and fitness.

sol.
.

Re: Well explained

[thorfinn]

Oh right. Well, still, your last statement there is correct, so it boils down to the same thing, fortunately. But seriously, take up fidgeting.

http://www.mplsheartfoundation.org/education/education_othermatters_fidgeting.asp

And it's not just extra the calorie burn that counts, it's the fact that it's extremely low intensity calorie burn, resulting in a much higher proportion of fat burnt...