New Federal Health Guidelines (my two cents)

1/21/05

I hope you are starting off happy, healthy, and productive in 2005. Today I want to share with you the latest diet and exercise guidelines from the federal government and give you my two cents regarding these.

First, if you haven't read any articles about the new guidelines yet, here are three that give overviews of them.

CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/01/12/food.pyramid.ap/index.html

USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-01-12-food-pyramid_x.htm and: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-01-12-guidelines-usat_x.htm

If you don't have time to check out those articles, here's a brief overview of the new guidelines:

-Decrease calories from saturated fats, trans fats, and refined carbs

-Pick whole grains over refined flour products (ie. Oatmeal is better than white bread)

-Emphasize whole fruits and vegetables over calorie-dense fruit juices

-Perform moderate exercise thirty minutes per day to cut risk of chronic disease

-Perform moderate exercise sixty minutes per day to prevent weight gain

-Perform moderate exercise sixty to ninety minutes per day to maintain weight loss

The largest controversy within these guidelines is the new exercise guidelines which have increased the duration of recommended exercise from former guidelines. The controversy lies in the philosophical debate of whether health professionals should recommend what's optimal or what's realistic.

Some health and fitness researchers will argue that setting guidelines which recommend exercising for sixty to ninety minutes per day is not realistic. They are afraid that when people hear this recommendation, they will just give up and say it's too tough.

Unfortunately, there is a chance that this could happen with some people because many of us have an "all or none" attitude towards fitness and health. I believe this "all or none" attitude is one of the most dangerous belief systems to have when it comes to fitness.

Most people who have been successful integrating fitness into their lives realize that fitness and healthy eating are a process. Each action will either take us closer to fitness or farther away from it. However, as long as we're making more good decisions than bad ones, we are moving in the right direction.

In addition, successful exercisers realize that if they "fall" that it's no big deal. They'll just get back up again and keep plugging along. From a dietary standpoint, these people realize that when they have a piece of pizza or a piece of cake that it's not the end of the world. They realize that they didn't just "blow their diet". It was one meal of poor choices and the next one will be better.

I do believe that something important is still being overlooked by the scientists and doctors who developed the guidelines. They are forgetting the importance of the metabolic rate and how we can control our metabolism. The research is very clear on this, yet the government hasn't readily acted on the research.

Widely-respected strength training researcher Dr. Wayne Westcott states that people "need to understand the importance of replacing muscle and increasing their metabolism as at least one part of the process of maintaining and reaching a healthy body weight. In addition to endurance exercise and proper nutrition, I promote strength training due to its metabolic benefit. Research from Tufts University indicates that if your replace about three pounds of muscle, you will increase your metabolic rate by about 7%, which reverses about 14 years of the aging process."

Note from Doug: "Amen, Brother."

Well-known fitness expert Kelli Calabrese concurs when she states, "I do believe in the long-term that strength training weighs in the heaviest (in terms of fitness benefit)". Now, for those of you females who think you may bulk up too much with weights, check out Kelli's website at http://www.kellicalabrese.com . She looks like she's in pretty good shape, doesn't she? Strength training didn't make her too bulky.

Here's what it comes down to: An underlying reason people struggle with weight management is a drop in lean body mass as they age. In an interview I did with Dr. Westcott, he discusses how this decrease in lean body mass is directly correlated with a five percent drop in metabolic rate for each decade a person lives. We can reverse the loss of lean body mass and in conjunction reverse the drop in our metabolisms through strength training.

With a higher resting metabolic rate, we may not have to exercise for sixty to ninety minutes each day just to keep weight off. The additional lean body mass created through strength training creates a solid foundation for weight management which doesn't make us a slave to the treadmill for seven days per week.

This is real science. I believe that within the next 15-20 years, we will see specific federal guidelines in place that will recommend specific amounts of strength training each week so the American people can maintain their metabolic rates and maintain a healthy body weight as they age.

To view the powerful interview I conducted with Dr. Westcott and Kelli Calabrese, click here: http://www.personalfitnessadvantage.com/Articles/metabolism.html

By the way, all of this talk about metabolism ties in with the teaser I threw into the newsletter a few weeks ago. When I mentioned that too much cardiovascular conditioning could lower your metabolic rate, I received a few unhappy email responses.

Well, let me explain how this happens.

First, I'll remind everyone that our resting metabolism is primarily controlled by our lean body mass (ie. the more muscle we have on our frame, the higher our metabolic rate is. Second, visualize a marathon runner verses a sprinter. Who has more muscle? The sprinter, of course.

Actually, elite level marathon runners are typically extremely weak. The body will simply not carry much muscle tissue on a person who is undergoing elite level marathon-style training.

These marathoners stay lean because of the high amounts of exercise they do. But what happens if they get hurt? Due to their low resting metabolisms, if they get hurt and become inactive, they are likely to gain fat weight quickly.

Okay, let's apply this to our average male or female who wants to get in shape. If they cut back calories too far and overemphasize cardiovascular exercise, their body will have no choice but to burn muscle as fuel. Since their body will cannibalize their own muscle tissue, lean body mass will drop, metabolic rate will drop, fat loss will plateau, and they will not reach their long term fitness goal. Sorry, but that's the science of it.

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