Episode #139: The Last Diet You’ll Ever Need – Part 1

In this podcast, the last diet you'll ever need, the bar method of working out what to do if your calves are too big, and a couple questions about training on a bicycle.

Welcome to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation. So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, get ready for non run of the mill cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield here and somehow I've managed to figure out how to get you a podcast. While I am basically stranded on top of a mountain in the middle of of a small island called Nevis in the West Indies, there are monkeys climbing on top of the roof of my little hut up here, perched on top of a hill and I'm amazed that I even have an Internet connection. But I do have my portable microphone and I am here because I have a very cool interview for you today with a guy named Casey Kreischy about a very cool book and it's called Super Health the last diet you'll ever need. I would highly recommend you listen in to this interview. It's not often that I recommend diet, so this might be once in a blue moon. After you listen, be sure to tune in towards the end of this episode where I'm going to tell you how to score a free book from kc. As a matter of fact, I'm going to tell you how to score the very book that we're talking about for free. It'll be pretty easy to do. So stay tuned to the end of this podcast and let's started get get started into the special announcements.

Special announcements.

I mentioned this last week and I'll remind you again. On April 12th I am hosting a live free video webinar called the Shocking truth about Vitamin D and fish oil. Dr. Rick Cohen from Bioletics is going to be in on that video seminar and I've got a link to it in the show notes to this podcast. Podcast number 139. Just go over to BenGreenfieldFitness.com click on the show notes and you'll be able to RSVP for that. It's free. It's going to be very cool. Dr. Cohen has a ton of research I haven't seen before that he's going to be releasing that day about vitamin D and about fish oil. So highly recommended. Whether or not you're actually taking those supplements. This would be a very good one to sit in on. So that's going to be on Tuesday, April 12th at 6pm the other special announcement is going to be saved for the end of this podcast. So let's jump right into this week's Listener Q and A.

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Listener Q and A.

So if you have a question you can just use the Ask Ben form on the podcast show notes over at BenGreenfieldFitness. You can also ask a question through the iPhone app or the Android app. Both are free and you can download them over on the right side of the page@BenGreenfieldFitness.com the other way you can ask a question is via Twitter. You can just twitter to Engreenfield to ask your question or go followengreenfield if you want more tips from me during the day. Alright, let's go ahead and go to this week's first question, which is from listener Violet who says, I have always had large calves and no matter how much weight I lose, they don't change. I don't want the muscle any bigger, I just want to lose fat, especially the fat right under my knee. I've done calf raises on the stairs, but is there anything else I could try? Also, I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I'm very hyper mobile, especially in my knees. Well, first of all, as far as the last part of that question, flexibility and hypermobility really aren't going to affect fat deposition in a certain body part or body area, but in terms of reducing toning or losing fat in one body part. The issue with that is that basically your body has to be put into a state where it actually has incentive to mobilize that fat. In this case the fat that's around your knee, that's storage fat. And the only way that your body is going to have incentive to mobilize that fat is if it's put into a state where it has to burn that as a fuel or it has to rely on it as fat. And some people tend to burn storage fats more predictably or more favorably in certain locations and find it easier to lose fat in those locations. The women who are listening in know what I'm talking about and find it frustrating when the very first place they ever lose fat, when they begin to lose weight, is the chest.

And.

And a lot of women don't want that to happen. But as far as the knee goes, you should be coming at this from a nutritional and a workout program standpoint and not a targeted exercise standpoint. And the reason for that is that doing things like squats and calf raises, those might improve the metabolic activity in that area just slightly. Just slightly improve heat, fat, burning, et cetera. But they're not going to hold a candle to what you'd be able to achieve by getting your diet dialed in, taking into account a lot of the dietary recommendations that I give out on this show. And also getting things like unfed cardio sessions in in the morning, doing higher intensity cardiovascular intervals in the afternoon, making sure to incorporate weight training so you get that hormonal response to fat loss, all those type of things will help. Now, in terms of actually reducing the size of a muscle, that's an issue where you're literally having to cannibalize your body's own lean muscle tissue. Now, some people are born with larger calves than other people, and that's just pure genetics. But in terms of actually cannibalizing some of that lean muscle mass, the issue is that whenever you start to tap into your body's own lean muscle mass, it's stressful in the body. It can suppress your immune system. So you want to do it rather slowly. But the best place that I would recommend that you start is by doing unfed cardio sessions. And those will simply allow you to. To actually begin to cannibalize your body's own lean muscle tissue. It's a good strategy if you really are wanting to burn through fat and then subsequently burn through muscle also. Now, when I tell people just. Or people who just want to burn fat to do these fasted cardio sessions, I warn them not to go too hard. But if you're trying to lose muscle, go all out, starve yourself, and go lift weights, do cardio intervals, do high intensity cardio. When I say starve yourself, I mean, you know, don't eat a big meal and go do those workouts, do them on an empty stomach, and it's going to be stressful to your body. I don't recommend that you incorporate a session like that any more than three times per week. And you always space them by about 48 hours, but that will allow you to start to kind of tap into your body's own lean muscle tissue. Of course, the issue with this is that if you genetically have very large calves, you may start to tap into lean muscle tissue in areas that you don't want to. Your arms might get smaller, your thighs might get smaller. All those type of things could actually happen. So it's that risk that you take. So if you don't notice your calves getting smaller and other parts of your body are getting smaller, you don't want to get smaller, then you may want to actually stop doing that because it will make your calves look disproportionately even bigger. So shrinking a muscle is tough to do. I hope I'm giving you that impression. But the final thing that I would tell you is when you're working out and you're doing exercising and you're trying to work, your calves, definitely don't work out in a repetition range that's known to cause hypertrophy or that growth of muscle size. So don't work out in the 8 to 12 rep range. Always go like 15, 20 reps plus when you're working the calves. And that'll help keep you from putting on new muscle fiber. And really, if you really wanted to get smaller, I wouldn't be working them much at all. And I definitely wouldn't be working them too fatigue. So it's kind of a tough state that you're in. And it really is kind of related to a book that I'm working on trying to teach folks how to work out for their body type. But that is where I would start, would be with unfed, high intensity cardio interval and weight training sessions, avoiding a hypertrophy type of range. Then for the fat at the back of the knees, basically getting your diet and your workout program dialed in and not doing split specific targeting sessions for the knee itself. Okay, the next question is from Mike.

Hi Ben, this is Mike calling. Was wondering what was your take on power cranks? Can't seem to find it on your website. Doesn't look like you've covered it before. Yeah. So thank you.

Well, contrary to what the name may sound like, power cranks are not a new novel form of drug. They are actually a bicycle training apparatus. And basically they are cranks and they attach to your bicycle and they move independently of one another. So normally when you pedal your bike, both of the arms that your pedals are attached to or the cranks that your pedals are attached to, they move at the same time dependently on one another. So as one's going down, the other one's going up. And with power cranks, they move independently. So both of your legs have to work on their own to figure out how to manage the pedal stroke. So by isolating both of your legs and preventing, for example, the dominant leg from compensating for a weaker leg, the power cranks will train your muscles, how to incorporate new muscle mass and basically teach your brain how to recruit muscles a little bit more efficiently during the pedal stroke. They've gotten tons of great reviews. I know a lot of athletes that use them. The problem is that it's kind of like learning to walk again, or even for experienced cyclists, learning how to ride your bike again. You feel very efficient. It feels very frustrating when you first start to use them. It will literally take you a good two to three months to gain back your prowess or your efficiency on the bicycle using these power cranks. And then at that point, you can use them just in training, you can use them in racing. You can use them as a training tool just a few times during the week, or use them all the time. But I've never spoken with a person who has used them and not found that they vastly improved biomechanics and helped with power as well. They're a little spendy. They're about $700 for these cranks. But if you use them on your bike, they are probably going to help you become a better cyclist. And if pedaling inefficiencies or pedaling inefficiency is something that you deal with, it's going to be something that could help you out tremendously. So do I personally use them? No. It's not an investment that I've made yet. But I do have some athletes that use them, and I've spoken with others who have used them, and they swear by them in terms of making you a better cyclist. So it's a great question. The next question is from Ron, who says several podcasts have mentioned flaxseed oil positively. My research differs. I stopped taking flaxseed oil a year ago because of its very high phytoestrogen content. Men's Health had an article on soy milk, also high in phytoestrogen, a while back in which a male was drinking two quarts a day and his breasts were enlarging. Interesting. Okay, so phytoestrogens, they're basically these substances found in plants, and they can imitate, to a certain extent the activity of estrogens in people. And the plants can't make human estrogens. But they make these hormone like substances that help to regulate estrogens within the human body, and they're called these phytoestrogens. And they can definitely impact males or females in terms of your normal hormonal metabolism.

But there are really, there's very little.

Evidence that something like phytoestrogens in soy milk could cause male breast enlargement, which is also known as gynecomastia, the way that it would happen if it did happen, because anecdotally there's been cases where it suggested that it could have caused a male breast enlargement. But basically, the soy milk phytoestrogens are known as isoflavones and those are very similar to certain estrogens within the human body. And the reason that when you ingest isoflavones, they could actually cause this breast enlargement is that they could increase the estrogen concentrations enough to where a male actually started to take on female characteristics. Now, you'd have to drink the equivalent. In order to get that amount of isoflavones, you'd have to drink the equivalent of about 3, 3 quarts of soy milk a day, or that's about 350 to 400 milligrams of isoflavones in a day. So a cup of soy milk has about 25 milligrams. So you'd have to be drinking a ton of soy milk to really get that phytoestrogen response. But it is, you know, it's feasible. You could do it, I guess, if you were just like living on soy milk or doing lots of, you know, tofu and other isoflavone sources on the side. But when you look at flaxseed, the phytoestrogen content of flaxseed is through the roof compared to soy milk. And so this really sets a lot of people off because they're like, well, it may take just a little soy milk, but man, you don't have to take in much flaxseed oil in order to get the same amount of phytoestrogens. Well, that is true. You're going to get a lot more phytoestrogens with flaxseed oil. But the main phytoestrogen in flaxseed oil is not these isoflavones. It's basically a lignin. And there's a big difference between a lignin and an isoflavone. An isoflavone will very strongly bind to the estrogen receptor and can increase production of the estrogen like compounds, whereas A lignin weakly binds and can actually inhibit some of the production of the estrogens. So huge difference in terms of the response. And there is really zero evidence of flaxseed oil causing something like male gynecomastia or breast enlargement. Now, of course, flaxseed oil is a seed based oil and because it does contain phytoestrogens, that means it does contain phytic acid. And phytic acid is one of those things that can be considered in high amounts to be an anti nutrient. It can bind with a lot of the minerals and the nutrients in your digestive tract and keep you from absorbing them. And that's why I wouldn't go overboard with flaxseed oil. I do the equivalent of about a teaspoon a day or a few capsules a day of a flaxseed oil and that should be enough. Remember also that good digestive health helps your body to produce some phytases that can actually cause phytic acid to do a little bit less damage to your digestive tract. So doing something like taking a digestive enzyme would also be a really good idea if you're taking flaxseed oil. Okay, so the next question comes from Ranieri.

Hey, Ben, what's going on? This is Ranieri Palavicini. Well, I've been doing the training plan from, from the, what is that called? From the. Well, the, your training plan. So for the half ironman. And I've been training in the indoor, in the. Training for the bike, with the bike. And like two days ago it was very warm here. I live in Elizabeth in New Jersey and I get out very nice riding, you know, like one hour of riding I did like, you know, I don't know, 20 miles, 21 miles. And all of a sudden, I mean, it was fine. But instead, two days after, that's what we're about, that two weeks, Two days after my knee starting pain. So I get up yesterday morning and you know, that was two days from the training day and starting pain, my knee. Like that's very, very weird. So I'm like, what? I'm probably asleep bad or something. But I figured, and I remember that, oh, two days ago I did some bike and it was the first time outside with a bike without the training. Now I didn't change the seat or the feeding, nothing. I didn't change anything. Do you have any idea why that might be happening?

Well, it's a great question and I.

Can understand your frustration when it comes.

Up like that out of the blue.

But when you're on your bike and you're riding indoors, you tend to stay in a relatively constant position. You don't move around too much when you're training indoors. When you go outdoors, you're standing up, you're sitting down, you're shifting forward, you're shifting back. And all these changes in position can not only utilize new muscles, but they can also cause more movement in terms of your patella or your kneecap in that groove that's between the femur and the tibia. And so what can happen is there can be a little bit of cartilage rubbing that goes on, a little bit of irritation, some inflammation, and it's likely that what you felt was either your kind of 48 hour delayed onset muscle soreness from using the quads a lot more than you were used to using them, or you actually had some patellar tracking issues from moving around a lot. Now, for the patellar tracking, the best thing that you could do is to strengthen your quads and also make sure your hamstrings are flexible before you head out on that ride.

And even something as simple as including a quadriceps strengthening session once a week and then doing hamstring stretching every day can solve that issue.

And then the other thing that I look into is simply giving yourself a little bit more time outdoors on the bike. Do a few more rides, see if it happens again. If it continues to happen, then it's likely that it's not a conditioning issue.

It's not like a muscle soreness in.

The quads issue, but it really is.

That issue with patellar maltracking. And then this is probably pretty unlikely.

Since you aren't feeling your pain when you're riding indoors, but you're only feeling.

It when you're riding outdoors.

But in terms of your saddle height, you may want to look into raising it just slightly and also moving your seat slightly back. And I realize that you didn't have an issue with your seat height and your saddle position where it is currently at when you're riding indoors. But it would be definitely something to.

Try at this point before you head outdoors to ride again.

Just bring the saddle up or bring the saddle back just a few millimeters and bring the seat post up just a few millimeters.

And that will take some stress off the knee as well.

If you you do it too far.

Though, it can create pain on the outside of your knee and the back of your knee, so be careful.

You don't really want your knee to.

Be extended more than about 25 degrees at the bottom of that pedal stroke.

Alright, we've got one more question and this question comes from mayor who says have you ever heard of the bar method in Chicago and la? It's taking off like wildfire. Lots of bold claims, Lots of YouTube coverage as well I think. And my muscles think I would get bored with this formulaic type class three times per week. So basically what the barre method is.

Is you've got this bar almost like a ballerina would work on.

And this is a one hour workout that is primarily body weight exercises combined with certain moves that you do stabilizing your body with this bar. And the idea is that it's kind of a mix of some cardiovascularly intensive aerobics type moves along with some Pilates esque core moves and some almost like dancer type of flexibility and calisthenic moves. Now this type of routine is great for say somebody who needs to improve their mobility or needs to improve their flexibility. Pretty good for somebody who's already got muscle but wants to say tone the muscle a little bit more, maybe not put on more muscle and also wants to again improve like core strength, flexibility and mobility. It would be also pretty decent for somebody who really is just getting started and is able to move around and is pretty mobile but wants to start with something that's more body weight than like free weight or cable or dumbbell barbell weight machine based. And they would also see results from this initially. The problem with it is it misses a very important component of fitness and that is some form of heavier weight bearing to actually stimulate the hormonal response that occurs when you expose your body to heavy loads and also to stimulate that muscle mass or lean muscle mass formation. So if you were doing something like this, like this bar method three times a week, you would want to mix it up and include a couple of weight training sessions. You'd probably want to include like some cardio interval sessions as well, like some bicycling or treadmill sprints or going hard on the elliptical trainer. Some things that get you moving in that harder like anaerobic state that you're not going to get into when you're doing this bar method and then use the barre method the same way as you would use you know, say yoga class or Pilates class or a body weight only workout, you know, as something that you include as a supplement to a weight training and cardiovascular interval based workout. But there are definitely benefits that you.

Could get from this.

If you're using it as the sole method of getting fit though, it wouldn't really hit all the muscle systems and that's a really good way to look at any workout program. Is, you know, is this limiting itself to just one or two different muscle systems or is this hitting them all? So a good program?

You know, you should have weight bearing.

You should, you should have some body weight stuff. You should have some flexibility, some mobility, some easy aerobic cardio, some cardiovascular intervals and not just one mode of exercise. So I hope that helps. And now we're going to move into this interview about the last diet you'll ever need. This is a two part series, so part two will come out next week. This is well worth listening to.

I learned a ton while I was.

Interviewing Casey and also reading his book to learn more prior to interviewing him. Again, I don't really endorse many diets. This is one I would certainly consider listening into and then listen for a special announcement at the very end about how you can get the book that we talk about for free.

Featured Topic.

Hey folks, this is Ben Greenfield. You know, a few months ago, actually all the way back In March of 2010, we had a podcast called are you eating dead food? And I had a gentleman named Casey Kreischy on the call and he talked about the difference between live food and dead food and came up with some really interesting concepts that he shared. And I will put a link to that podcast in the show. Notes to this episode. Well, Casey is back and I'm going to tell you why he's back on this show. A few weeks ago, I got an envelope in the mail and it had.

A book in it.

And I got to tell you, I typically get about two to three books.

A week that come in envelopes in the mail with requests for me to.

Review them, to read them, to talk about them on the show. It's very rare that I actually will.

Do a thorough reading of the book from COVID to cover and not put the book down the entire time. It's also very rare that I am so impressed by the book that I actually get the person that wrote the.

Book to come onto the podcast and talk about it.

You know, you've heard some of the.

Podcasts that we've done in the recent.

Past with authors like Art Devaney and Phil Maffetone. Well, when it comes to book books, one of the genres of books that tends to be the most dime a dozen, overwritten, overhyped style of book is the diet book. As you probably know, there are thousands.

Of them out there, and I've had.

Just about every one that there is.

Shoved in front of my face at one point or another.

And so when I received this book in the mail called the super health diet the last diet you will ever need, I was pretty tempted to put this one towards the maybe I'll read.

When I get really bored pile.

But I did see that it was written by KC And I had KC on a podcast a few months ago, and I was pretty impressed with some of the stuff that he had to say. As a matter of fact, I actually eat every day in my diet, a few of the, the powders and the living food supplements that Casey's company creates. And so when I saw this book, I decided, you know what? Casey wrote this. I should at least take a look.

And I wasn't really prepared to encounter anything I hadn't seen before.

Well, I was wrong. This is not the average diet book. So when I opened it up, the first thing that I found was that the first half of the book didn't really even talk about eat this. Not that what to eat. All it did was give me the most thorough and comprehensive overview I have ever encountered in any book of every single diet, every single weight loss strategy, every single surgery, every supplement, everything that's out there that could be used for weight loss, and every study and every little bit of research and everything that has to do with, with how this stuff works, whether it works, why it works, if it's safe, all the way.

Up to basically 2011, when this podcast.

Is being produced, so completely up to date, pure gold in terms of content. And then it goes on and actually talks about what to eat. And it's definitely not a rigid diet plan that I'm used to seeing in these diet books. It's a very free flowing, very common sense way of eating that we're going to talk about in today's show. But the book is called Super Health Diet. The author is KC Kreische. He's right here on the phone with me today. So, kc, thank you for coming on the call.

Hey, it's my pleasure, Ben. I'll tell you, with your opening like that, you make me want to read it.

Yeah, you should.

You should. I've got a copy. I'll send it to you.

Thank you.

I'll sign it and send it on.

I appreciate that.

Well, let's jump right into the pure content. Casey, in your book, the Super Health Diet, you start off by describing every other weight loss club and diet that's out there. So in your opinion, what. Why are there so many diets and.

Diet books Ben, your opening was so powerful in that there are so many and we've seen them all, and I've drudged through them all, and I had a weight issue that I had to try to figure out over my lifetime. The truth is, though, that based on what most people are eating and doing, I'm sure you would agree that basically any diet plan, program, scheme in existence could have most people losing weight for a time. Because basically when people stop doing what they're doing and do something structured, it usually is an improvement for one. And secondly, when they go from this American diet to a plan which they can apply their faith to, even though the plan is not always true, and usually, and thus far, none of them have been all true that I've seen, then they get the benefit of the placebo effect, which essentially is that they are able to believe it for a time and create. I mean, we know now in medicine that even if you don't tell somebody it's a placebo, in the clinical studies, they're actually going to get benefit anyway. So real power comes when you apply your faith to something that is actually true. And so this is why I wanted to write this book, because I have been so confused that how in the world can a system that completely different systems both be correct or multiple different systems all be correct? And you got these weight loss programs, and yes, many of them were started by people with passion that would actually open up. I mean, solve their own health issue, and then they helped others solve their issue, and then they helped a lot of others solve their issues, and then they would sell out to a corporation who was in it for profit, and then they would cut corners. And again, now you're dealing with a system or a multitude of systems that are out there to make money, and they keep making money because nobody's losing weight permanently.

Yeah.

With so many diets out there, you actually name kind of some of the ways that you would recommend people look.

At a diet to recognize whether or not a diet is indeed a fad diet.

What are some of those ways that.

You can actually know if something is a fad diet?

Well, one way is that it tells you to eat this one food all the time. Like, for instance, with a juice fast. For instance, a juice fast. Many, many people have gone to, say a juice fast for reasons of losing weight. But you know what happens when people don't get enough protein and get enough of all the vital nutrients? They lose precious muscle. They do lose weight, they lose precious muscle, and then they get to the end of the Term. And lo and behold, now they're way more than they did before. And unfortunately, they have changed the composition of their body. So a decrease in muscle mass and an increase in fat mass, which is exactly opposite what they were looking for.

Gotcha. So one thing, and you know, I gotta tell you, when I picked up your book, I kind of thought that's what it was gonna do because I know that, like, your company makes protein powder and meal replacement powders. And what I thought when I picked it up was, well, this is just going to tell me. Eat Casey's protein powder and meal replacement powder for every meal. It doesn't do that at all. But that is a good point. That. Yeah, a lot of these diets that tell you just eat one thing and.

Then you got things like grapefruit diet, okay, they add grapefruit to every meal and somehow that's going to miraculously burn fat. So it gets pretty silly. Basically, when something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is.

Now, what are some other ways that.

We can recognize fad diets aside from just having one thing that you're supposed to eat?

Dr. Well, they normally have silly names like the cookie diet or the. You've seen all these out there. The Hollywood Diet, you see these diets out there that are basically rehashes of old diets like the macrobiotic diet. So you got. The Hollywood diet is really just the macrobiotic diet with somebody else's name on it. You see? So we actually identify all these core diets, like macrobiotic and the Mediterranean diet and all these other things in the book. But basically somebody comes along and they like one of these old diets for whatever reason, and they take pieces of it and put it into a new system and give it a new name.

Now, what about exercise? In a diet book, if a diet.

Does or does not prescribe exercise, is.

That something that would make an impression on you in terms of the.

Yes. I mean, there's your obvious fad diet here. Eat this way and you don't have to exercise and eat all you want and life will be fine and you're going to lose all the weight and you'll be in perfect health and so on. Yeah, that is an obvious one that people tend to harp on.

What's the maximum amount of weight that someone should be seeing in terms of the promise that a diet might promise them?

You know, that's a pretty broad question, because if they're doing ketogenic diets, which are protein and fats, and cut out the carbs for the most part, they're going to lose five to ten pounds in the early going in the first week or two. But the loss of weight is from losing glycogen from the muscle. So when you lose stored carbohydrates stored as glycogen in the muscle, you automatically lose three to four times that amount of weight in water, because one gram of glycogen holds three to four grams of water. So water weight is lost at the outset. So they do claim large amounts of weight loss. But the real weight loss happens once you finish their diet and go back on a reasonable amount of carbohydrates and get that 5 to 10 back. So the net weight loss is the only real weight loss. Now, a lot of these people are talking about, these programs are talking about one to two pounds a week, and they say you can't safely lose more than one to two pounds a week. The truth is you can lose dramatically more than that. And including £5 a week or £10 a week, depending on how heavy one is, as long as you supply every nutrient the body needs, including amounts of protein necessary to not lose muscle mass. There are ways to lose a lot of weight that are not safe, like the, the shake for breakfast, shake for lunch, and then reasonable dinner kind of scenario, because they don't provide all the nutrients necessary and particularly don't provide nearly enough protein to lose weight. Because the biggest problemone of the biggest problems in health is age related sarcopenia, which is simply muscle loss over time. And people, you know in your sport, essentially in your sport, we need to talk about this sometime. People, for some reason people are muscular and hold onto their muscles. But when they go into like the endurance sports, I mean the marathon kind of sports, they're very skinny upper bodies and they're chewing up their muscle for building other things. Like a body will tear the bathroom down to build the kitchen, for instance, because they don't have enough flow of protein into the body. So it's really important for one to realize is that when calories go down, the actual need for protein actually goes the other direction. Now this is something I put in my book and put references behind it that you actually need. When you lower your calories, you need to increase your protein and not decrease your protein. And virtually every diet system fails in that area.

Why is that that you would want to increase your protein when calorie count goes down?

Interestingly, in a sport like you do in the triathlons and such, people have large amounts of calories. And so when you have large amounts of calories. Actually, protein digestion actually gets much more efficient. It's opposite of what you would actually think. But when you drop the calories, protein digestion becomes very inefficient. So you need to increase. One needs to increase their protein amounts. Now, I have a whole chapter, which I'm sure we'll talk about later, on the dynamic role of protein. But that is more of a complex subject for what we just mentioned. But the truth is that if people are lowering their calories, like many people say, hey, I need to lose weight, so I'm just going to have a salad for lunch. How many times have you heard that? So what happens is they're giving themselves a filler that has a nice amount of nutrients in it, but not nearly enough protein to drive metabolism and drive muscle mass increase.

Gotcha.

So when we're talking about diets, this recent study in the New England Journal.

Of Medicine compared a ton of different.

Diets and found that in terms of the composition of the fats and the proteins and the carbohydrates, that there was a really large range in terms of just about all of them being somewhat effective as long as total caloric intake was low in terms of high fat diet, high protein diet, high carb diet, et cetera. So it seems that there's a bunch of ways to lose weight. So is there really any perfect diet, or can people just kind of choose any of these diets?

Well, the truth is, it depends on the goal. Every one is a clinical study of one. So not everybody is the same and they respond differently to different things. But see, the truth is, the goal should never be weight loss. The goal should be super health. The nice side effect of super health is weight optimization. So when you compare these diets, as the journal did, they're comparing how they worked in terms of weight loss over a given period of time. You see, and so we know that you can. There's the guy that did the Twinkie diet. You read about that in there. I mean, you can literally. I mean, the clinical research shows if you have lower calories of exactly what you're eating, regardless of what you're eating, you're going to lose weight. So in terms of just dropping pounds for a window, then you can lose weight on just about any system. But when you get off of that system, that is where the problems begin, you see? And so you're not losing the right kind of weight when you drop calories unless you have the right mix of nutrients.

Yeah, it's a very good Point. And I've actually encountered many people who have come to me for weight loss who literally have damaged metabolisms from nutrient deprived diets that they went on that did just fine for weight loss, but didn't do them any favors at all when it came to their health or their longevity.

Absolutely. And you know, you got these people, these weight loss clinics live on people coming back. So it obviously is not working or they wouldn't be having people repeat or come back. And so part of the reason for this book in writing about all these systems is that, you know, how does a person who comes back from the doctor and they tell their wife that the doctor said that my blood pressure is too high and I'm way too much and that I'm going to have to start eating right and exercising. And then he says to his wife, what does that mean? Well, I don't know. Let's go to one of these systems. I saw a commercial about this particular system yesterday and they're guaranteeing X number of weight pounds will be lost. So let's go there. Well, how do they know that low glycemic is better for them than just pure calorie restriction or all the other various systems out there? So what I wanted to do was to clarify, guys, listen, if you're going to go that route, at least understand what you're getting into and see how that might work for you.

Well, in terms of diets, obviously pills and prescriptions and procedures are a big.

Focus of a lot of diets.

And you talk about some of the more serious dangers and complications, liver damage.

Central nervous system damage, of a lot.

Of the different supplements and procedures out there. But you're also fan of a few fat loss supplements and I don't necessarily want you to give away the farm here, but what are a couple of the supplements that you actually do agree with and encourage people to take when.

It comes to enhancing weight loss?

Well, the things that are clear is that increase in antioxidant is helpful. Okay. And so increase in antioxidants, broad spectrum antioxidants in terms of broad amounts of nutrients and even supplements is a wise thing to do. But one that you're going to love and I'm surely agree with is fish oil. Fish oil actually supports weight optimization. So does the fat CLA, which is omega 6 fat CLA is helpful there. Supplementing with chili pepper has been shown to be very effective in assisting in weight optimization. There are other things out there like white bean extract which has been shown to block carbohydrates but my experience is people that take that will actually eat more carbohydrates because they feel like they blocked them so they can eat more. So it doesn't really end up working. There's some powerful things out there people can do, and we list a lot of them. There's that Ervingia nutrient. I mean, the research on that thing is very impressive, but I personally couldn't tell any difference at and well above the dosage recommendation. If you just go read the literature, though, it would seem to make sense to take this nutrient regardless because of its enhancing cell signaling and so on. So things that you take like chromium, that anything that you would take as a nutrient that would actually enhance blood sugar management actually then would be effective in weight optimization also. So there's a number of ones out there that are good and like you say, we list a bunch of them there in the book.

Yeah, I'd never actually heard of avingia before until I checked out your book. And you're right, the research looks interesting. But you also. I thought it was cool how many of these things you've tried or you've had some of the clients, people you work with try and you noticed that it didn't do anything even up to four times the recommended dosage from the.

Yeah, See, that to me was very disappointing because a lot of the people out there are talking about, you know, 30 pounds and I forget how many weeks and with no change in your diet. And again, that's one of those signal words, but it seemed pretty impressive. So I didn't have 30 pounds to lose, but I just wanted to see what would happen. And it really was a big zero as far as I could tell. But the research again would say, hey, you know what, if it enhances cell signaling, you should take it anyway.

Now, what about spas and clinics? You talk about those in your book.

And this is probably one of the first diet books I've seen that actually goes and kind of looks at some of the different clinics that are spread out there around the world and what they're on, based, based on.

But can you kind of give an overview of what a weight loss spa.

Or weight loss clinic actually is, what.

Somebody does there and whether they actually work?

Well, you know, again, it's basically, there are actually a fair amount of them and I named some really good ones in the book that people enjoy. But when people are frustrated and they're in their lifestyle and their habits are so deep, as you've seen, I mean, if people are just used to doing things a certain way. And they have certain things in their house and if it's near them, they're going to eat it. And they eat their diet. Like you said, they have broken metabolism so they really don't feel like working out. So at some point they get to the point where say, listen, I am just going to go somewhere that all I do is focus on diet and exercise. And those things can actually be very positive for people because they wake up and their breakfast is managed, their lunch is managed, their dinner is managed, and if they get a snack, it's something that's healthier. Now, I don't always agree, as you see in the book, with the dietary approach of some of these places, but the fact that people are able to go out of their normal environment and enter a structure is actually quite positive for a lot of people.

Interesting.

In terms of spas, clinics, things of that nature. Can you talk about maybe just one.

Of them that you discuss in the book just so people can get an idea of what the these type of things are?

Sure. The one I always go back to, we have the Canyon Ranch. Those are good ones. The Cooper Clinic has a program and Duke Diet and Fitness. Now, I really am not a fan of the more medical approach clinics as much, but Hilton Head Institute Health Institute has a great program. I say great in terms of you go with us, get a structure. Okay. But one of the places I like is because really it's about going to a structure. If you go to a place and they will like if you go to a Ritz Carlton spa in like Orlando or Naples or out there at Bachelor Gulch in California, they have tremendous workout facilities and people that can work you out. So if you go there and you tell them what you're trying to accomplish, it doesn't even have to be one of these ones that I list in the book. It could be the Ritz Carlton. And they say, listen, I'm going to feed you. Breakfast is going to be eggs and lunch is going to be whatever you guys agree to. And then you follow the workout program. In fact, if you do two a days, you're working out morning and night, that can be very effective also. So I don't really think it's the magic of the specific program. I do mention them all in here and the little. The strengths and weaknesses, so to speak. But mainly it's getting out of your environment and onto a structure.

Yeah, I think that the structure is very important. When I was a personal trainer, I had a few of my clients who would Come to me about a couple times a year for what we call the fat camp, where we would just put them through a week of meeting with the trainer three times a day. And I wrote out their entire meal plan for each day of the week. And it was kind of exhausting mentally and physically for the person. But they lost a lot of weight. So I agree there's something to be said said for these spas and clinics.

They lost a lot of weight and they had you, they saw you all the time. They had accountability in the thing. They had a structure and they left. What you're talking about, see, because what you're talking about there is, as far as I'm concerned, every bit as good as going to one of these places and probably better because you know what you're doing. But the point is you're also teaching them to live that way, whereas if they go to a center, they may be a little different because they're eating in restaurants every meal and so on.

Good point.

So you talk about the thyroid hormones.

In weight loss, and on this show.

We'Ve talked about thyroid before, but in terms of giving people a little bit of a review, because I like the way that you explain it in your book. How would you explain how hypothyroidism causes somebody to gain weight and what they.

Can actually do about it?

Well, you know, it's really an important, important issue. I mean, we're now learning, I saw a study come out this week that hypothyroidism is actually one of the primary causes of Epstein Barr and those chronic fatigue kind of syndromes. It's an underdiagnosed, extraordinarily under diagnosed in those symptoms, those syndromes where people have no energy. So if you think about your thyroid, it generally should be set to where, if you stop at the, if you're a car and you stop at the stoplight, the car should run smooth and not sputter. But when you have hypothyroidism, you drive up to the stop sign and you push the brake and the car is really shaking and it's about to shut off. You know the feeling I'm talking about here, the situation? Well, people that have hypothyroidism basically have their, their motor adjusted too low. And if it's low enough, there's really not a whole lot they can do to lose weight. They can go out and they don't feel like working out. When they work out, they don't get the boost that most people would normally get when they work out and they don't digest food as quickly, they tend to gain weight more easily, they don't feel that well, and so on. So hypothyroidism can be caused by a number of things, nutrient deficiencies being one of them. You got the minerals, you got selenium, and you got iron and copper and zinc. All the minerals, all the vitamins also can accomplish the same thing. Vitamin D is a really big one that very few people know about. And most people listening right now, probably not to your podcast because you talk about it, but most people in general are vitamin D deficient, very significantly deficient in vitamin D, and they're very confused by the new recommendations for vitamin D. They weren't increased that much because they were only based on what the bone health aspect of vitamin D might be. But when we now, we now know that immunity and so many other things are dependent on the levels of vitamin D. It's an immune modulator, which, you know, vitamin D comes from the sun, but it also comes from supplementing vitamin D3 and eating foods that are rich in vitamin D. But the point I'm trying to make is low vitamin D actually can cause thyroid dysfunction, and people are not that aware of that. Low vitamin D can do that. Low iodine can do that also. So there are so many things that are, from a nutritional perspective that can, like low vitamin D, can cause reverse T3 conversion. So we really are really talking about that. You really must maximize the nutrients that are essential for the body in order to have optimal thyroid function.

Yeah. And you really give quite a shotgun of different thyroid boosters in the book to get people pointed in the right direction. Obviously, you're not dishing out medical prescription in the book, but from iodine to tyrosine to a ton of different herbs like oak, goat straw and alfalfa and gotu kola, natural glandular support, a ton of stuff I do know, and I saw in the chapter that you actually did quite a bit of consulting with a thyroid MD on this part of the book. And I think that it's one of the more comprehensive treatises on hypothyroidism and how to attack that from a weight loss perspective. Right after that, you talk about sex hormones like testosterone.

Can you explain how a loss of.

Testosterone could actually cause weight gain?

You know, it's a very important thing. I'm glad you brought that up because men over time are told that you just naturally have lower testosterone levels as you age. In fact, it's in the actuary tables that when you get a blood test and you're 40, they're expecting your testosterone to be substantially less than when you're 30, and then when you're 25 and so on. So low testosterone, though now has been shown not only to create lethargic men. You know, they have low sex drive, low drive in general. They don't feel like exercising. They got weight gain around the middle. They got. Actually, now we know it actually increases the likelihood of heart disease and stroke and other very significant risks in the body. So it seems very clear now that managing testosterone levels over a lifetime is a very important thing. And so I'm not just saying go straight to taking testosterone. And if you back up just a moment, we talked about the thyroid. There are some people who had thyroid surgery, and some people that have to have thyroid, have to take thyroid in order to get that optimal level. But my advice is that you take natural compounding thyroid, and not the synthetic kinds that are generally prescribed. So back to testosterone. The same thing goes with testosterone and progesterone and estrogen. The drug companies have gone out there and they've taken a natural molecule of testosterone, of estrogen, of progesterone, and what they've done is they've added. Added a molecule or two to that in order to secure patents. And they essentially make synthetic hormones using that patent, and now it is a drug, and they sell that to the masses. So most people who are on hormones actually are taking synthetic hormones in almost every case. And if it hasn't yet, over time, it likely will. These kind of synthetic hormones cause disease, particularly cancer in the body. So there's no little thing. I do give some references of how to find practitioners that know how to do this. But not everybody needs to take testosterone or estrogen or progesterone. Sometimes you just need to optimize your own levels. And that's normally the first approach one would take. So we talk about a product sold by Life Extension foundation called Super Miraforte. Basically, chrysan and other nutrients have been shown to block the aromatase enzyme. Aromatase converts whatever estrogen is in the body, whatever testosterone is in the body, to estrogen. So it takes makes what makes a man man and turns it to what makes a woman woman. And now men have levels of estrogen naturally but not high estrogen, and women have levels of testosterone but not high testosterone. So it becomes a big problem when you have high aromatase. Let's go back to aromatase. What happens when these levels drop and people eat the American diet and they're sedentary, they don't feel like working out is that they get belly fat. And what happens in belly fat is that it becomes literally the largest endocrine organ in the body. So basically you have a defacto organ that's now creating things like Interleukin 6 TNF Alpha and the enzyme aromatase, which you just talked about. So people are sitting there with belly fat, and the belly fat starts to work against their energy levels, against their vitality. And so they're lowering their testosterone levels because they have belly fat, and then they have belly fat because they have low testosterone levels. So it's a spiral that people have to climb out of.

Interesting. Yeah. And in terms of an aromatase inhibitor, that's one of the things that I really encourage the older males that I work with to look into taking. Basically keep testosterone from converting into estrogen. And that's useful not only for your energy and your performance, but you hear a lot of guys complaining about what they call these days man boobs. And a lot of that is also related to. To thatthat conversion of testosterone into those more female, like, hormones.

Absolutely. But see, man moves these things you're talking about. It's not just how unsightly or embarrassing that might be. There's a huge metabolic disturbance going on that will lead to death if left unchecked.

Yeah. And that's actually what I appreciate about your book is you come after it from a health standpoint, from a be there and be able to see your grandkids grow up standpoint, not just look good in a swimsuit standpoint.

So, yeah, it's nice to look good in a swimsuit too, but let's stay around a while. I mentioned this in the book. I believe it's a shame that the regulating bodies over these various sports have listed testosterone as one of these banned substances because we now have a. A system with athletes are getting older and playing the sports longer, and these athletes are really risking their health by not managing testosterone levels as they get older.

Yeah, it's tough. I do have some athletes, some males, who have gone through some pretty serious andropause and they are on testosterone patches and testosterone injections, and they're. They're walking a fine line if they end up on a podium of an ironman triathlon. So, yeah.

Aside from aesthetic reasons, we mentioned that you don't really believe that weight loss is necessarily the only thing that should be the goal of a diet program. In your book, you actually talk about 14 different reasons that people should lose weight. That kind of go beyond just looking Good. What are some of those reasons that.

You feel are most important for people.

To consider for weight loss, aside from.

Just say, getting a flat stomach?

Well, we talked about the problem with belly fat, Belly fat being a big culprit and messing up the hormone balance in the body. That would be the first one that I would go to. Then there are others. We know that people who are obese are far more likely to get the flu and things like the swine flu and other things than people who are not obese. Now that is pretty amazing when you think about it. What is going on in these people? That they're obese and they're now they have lower immunity as a result. It's just fascinating. And so we know that people who are obese actually have longer hospital stays, that they actually stay a couple of days longer than someone who's not obese, no matter what the reason that they went to the hospital. It's fascinating.

What about what we're doing to our.

Kids in terms of the possible link between obesity in a child and obesity in a parent?

Well, it's really terrible because now we know it's not just. Five percent of the likelihood of another generation having the same problem. So when you realize that the reason the kids are overweight and unhealthy is not because they inherited their parents genes, it's because they inherited their mom's cookbook or their dad's cookbook. And it's really an amazing thing that now we know through epigenetics that there's actually a programming layer above the gene that actually can create good or bad characteristics that actually sort of re overrides the programming in the genes and can pass on to next generation either a good habit or good trait or a bad habit or bad trait. This we see in alcoholism and smoking and so on, but it also works in fit, healthy lifestyles as well.

I got in some deep water a few months ago when I tweeted on Twitter that being fat could possibly make you stupid. I probably did not put that as kindly as I could have.

However, you do mention in your book that there could be a loss of brain tissue that occurs in obese individuals. How does that actually work?

Well, Journal of Human Brain Mapping saw exactly that, that they compared the brains of over 90 people in their 70s that were healthy but they were impaired, and they found that the actual weight of the brain of the obese people was dramatically less than the ones who weren't. That's fascinating. It's a fascinating study.

You know, from type 2 diabetes to an increase in disabilities, to the gut theory. You mentioned more things and talk about that gut theory.

What's the idea behind obese individuals and the gut theory?

Well, let's back up to the diabetes. I think it's so important that if you go to type 2 diabetes now, diabetes is basically diabetes by choice. People choose. I say that, and I always get a lot of emails when I say this. People choose to be diabetic for the most part. Vast majority of people who are type 2 diabetic choose that because it has been very clear that diet and lifestyle can completely reverse that situation. And most of the time now, not if somebody maybe has had it for a very long time, maybe there's been so much damage that it's not going to reverse like it would for someone who has had it a shorter time. But we know that prediabetes and diabetes are reversible. I'm sure you've even seen this, Ben, in people. You work out that they got blood sugar issues, they were told they were pre diabetic, they're told they're diabetic, but lo and behold, they work out or they go through this program and they're not diabetic anymore. Well, that is not by accident. Well, diabetes, interestingly means most people have too high of insulin all the time. They eat all the time, they drink sweet drinks all the time, and they become masters. Their body becomes masters at putting fat in various places in the body so that as the blood sugar and insulin are high all the time, the body is like getting really good at storing fat in places. What I say it happens in most people, and I'm classifying most people in the diabetic blood sugar issues category is that it's like they drive to the gas pump and they put the gas in the car, and then when it's filled, they click it a few more times so it runs down the side of the car and then they roll the back window down and fill the back seat with gasoline. The truth is, the body has about as much capacity to deal with the gasoline or the extra food or extra fuel that they're eating, sugar that they're eating, as the car has the capacity to deal with the gas in the back seat. So people are becoming very unhealthy because they're letting their blood sugar stay high all the time, they're eating all the time, and so on. So the trick is, according to the research, that resting blood sugar levels should really be below 80. And most people are telling you it's okay if it's 90. It's okay if it's 95 because you don't really want to go higher.

Yeah, yeah. I used to say that all the time. Eat six plus meals a day. And based on the things that you're talking about now, I've completely changed my view on that. And I'm getting better results with my clients and they're actually staying healthier because of that loss of blood sugar fluctuations.

What about bacteria in the gut?

In the link between obesity and gut bacteria?

Clearly people who are overweight have pathogenic bacteria in the gut. It's amazing how that just if you count all the things, only the things we've talked about during this short time, the amount of things that are negative associated with being obese, now it's just you got to have a good balance of intestinal flora and you got to have enough good bacteria to offset the bad bacteria. Otherwise you're going to get sick. And that's what happens to people who are obese. We need to talk more maybe next segment or this segment about this six meals a day versus three meals a day kind of scenario.

Actually, you know what? That's exactly one of the things that we're going to be getting into when we release part two of this interview next week. And as a matter of fact, as we get close to wrapping up this part one, I did want to mention something because I do have Casey's book right here as I'm talking to him about it. One thing that I failed to mention is that there are little quotes in the sidebar as you go through this book. And actually many of them are very funny.

For example, here's one from Dave Barry.

It says, I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years.

And when the nurse weighed me, I.

Was shocked to discover how much stronger the Earth's gravitational pole has become since 1990. I chuckled through the whole book because.

It actually kept me turning the pages because there were these kind of quick, funny, witty quotes on each page. So kudos for working those in.

We've talked today about obesity and weight loss and diets and some of the issues as far as that's concerned. And next week, I'd like to get into the solutions with you and some.

Of the things that you talk about in this book.

The Super Health Diet. But for those of you listening in right now, I'm going to put a link to this book in the show notes to this episode. It's called the Super Health Diet, the last diet you will ever need. I would encourage you, whether if you're a health practitioner, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, someone who's trying to lose weight, someone who wants to be healthier, or if you know someone who's trying to lose weight or be healthier, that you pick up this book if you.

It would be a super investment for your personal library.

Kc thanks for contributing to part one.

And we're looking forward to having you back next week.

Ben, you're doing a great workout.

Well, folks, that is part one. Part two is coming next week, but as promised, I'm going to tell you how you can win a free autographed.

Copy of Casey's book, the Super Health Diet.

What you can do to get that book is actually make a video. It can be with your cell phone, it can be with your computer, it doesn't matter. But in that video, what you need to do is actually let me know how you feel. This book could help you what your biggest problem is with diets, nutrition, losing weight, or staying healthy. You know, do you get sick all.

The time and you want to know how to boost your. Your immune system?

Do you lose weight and then put.

It back on again and take it.

Off and put it on? And you want to learn a complete solution to a yo yo weight loss issue? Do you have trouble sticking to fad diets?

And you want something that's finally not a fad diet?

Whatever it is, whatever your struggle is, what you can do is actually shoot a video explaining what you struggle with and why you feel this book will help you, and then post that video to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Facebook page, which I'll link to in the show notes of this episode. Episode139 from BenGreenfieldFitness.com so all you gotta do is make that video, upload it to the Facebook page. We're Gonna choose the 12 best videos and send you a free autographed copy of this book. And of course, next week, we're going to continue with part two of the Super Health Diet. So be sure to check out the show notes for this part, podcast number 139, for information on everything that I talked about in this show over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com have a healthy week. And by the way, the reason I'm actually in the Caribbean down here in.

The West Indies is I'm doing a.

Triathlon here called Tristar Nevis.

And I will be reporting on that.

Race over at the website everymantri.com all right, over and out.

This is Ben Greenfield.