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

[thorfinn]

No need to cut out all body fat - arguably, the human body is designed to have some, and expects that there is some to call on, and removing it entirely may not be good for your health. Keeping to "trim and firm shape", fine, but zero body fat seems like a dangerous idea, to me.

But yes, that heart monitor sounds like an improvement, but it's important to bear in mind that the guess is just that... a guess. And definitely more protein on exercise days is crucial - without it, you would lose muscle mass. But you know that, which is why you're doing it.

[tyggerjai]

0% body fat == death.
Roughly, 8% is more like the bottom of the healthy male human range - if your body is in peak condition, you can get away with it if you're eating heaps and just burning it quickly, but any less and you're asking for trouble. Base healthy range for women is more like 10%, but that's values of healthy that don't include, say, actually menstruating.

Athletes also tend to cycle - 8% may be "fighting weight", but training weight will often bump that up a notch. And as you say, that's top-end athletes - most fields of athleticism won't demand that sort of body fat figure.

sol.
.

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.

[fizit]

Thank you, you've just backed up my desire to do gentle weight training rather than aerobics classes (when I finally get to the gym, that is :)

[thorfinn]

Aerobics is a cool idea, but especially when just starting, it's very likely that a "standard aerobics routine" is going to dive well into anaerobic activity. Build up slowly.

Wow

[longi]

Congrats on avoiding the inevitible "Use LJ-cut!" comment from kitling :)

Re: Wow

[thorfinn]

Heh. I think she's away down the beach. But even so, my journal, my rules. I generally won't cut pure text if it's an informative post. I will cut stuff that could be construed as uninteresting by a reasonable proportion of readers, or if it contains inline images.

[vatine]

As an aside, muscle mass (in general) aids in increasing the metabolism, so gentle muscle-building activity (and protein intake while training and possibly he day after) can be quite beneficial.

[thorfinn]

Yes, most definitely. Muscle burns energy just being there, and more "conditioned"/fit muscle burns more energy, since "conditioning" is training the muscle to keep itself at a basic level of activity so that it's "ready to go" whenever.