Celebrity dieting

Just a word of warning: please do not do any of these! Saw an article on the freep this morning: Just like us, celebs work to lose weight too. Well, not just like us, but anyway. The article, after some introductory paragraphs (yawn), gets into mostly dietary regimens used by several celebrities. Here are a few snippets:

Gwyneth Paltrow: The 36-year-old mother of two has dabbled in the Master Cleanse program, in which you can consume nothing but water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for a minimum of 10 days.

Paltow's was the most unhealthy on the list. Why? There are such things as essential nutrients. Essential amino acids and essential fatty acids (interestingly, there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate). These are essential because your body cannot produce them itself. It must be consumed. Essential amino acids are found mostly (but not exclusively) in animal protein (if God wanted us to be vegans, he wouldn't have made animals out of meat). So if you eat meat and/or dairy, you're probably OK on this. Essential fatty acids are found in many sources (flax seed oil is a good one), but the best source is in fish oil.

In addition to not supplying the essentials for life, Paltrow's diet is insufficient in calories. It is not much different than determined starvation. The body, after about 17 hours of fasting, will begin to cannibalize its own tissue to survive. If only it would just take the fat. but such is not the case. Some fat will be utilized, but much protein (lean tissue) will be broken down also for a variety of reasons I will not go into here. In addition, minerals will be leached from bones and internal organs to maintain a health ph level in the blood (I don't think it would have hurt her to eat veggies). This is NOT good.

The goal should be maintaining lean tissue while shedding fat. Such selective use of tissue is a tricky maneuver. To maintain lean tissue, extra protein must be consumed, such that if any is broken down (into things such as blood glucose), it will come from the diet and not the lean tissue in the body. Secondly, resistance exercise must be employed to keep protein synthesis positive in the lean tissue, making it less likely to be cannibalized. Fat energy can only be utilized at a certain rate, which translates into a maximum 'healthy' weight loss of about 1-1.5 lbs per week. Any more, and the chances of lean tissue cannibalism increase dramatically. This amounts to about a 500 calorie/day deficit (to be made by either eating less, exercising more, or a combination of both).

Sure Paltrow lost weight, but I'd guess at least 50% of it was from lean tissue. From the freep article above, Elisabeth Hasselbeck appeared to have the best:

The 31-year-old credits fierce workouts at New York gym La Palestra, where they boast a staff of nutritionists and psychologists along with trainers... Hasselbeck has stayed the course on a wheat-free diet (she has celiac disease), and noshes on lean protein, vegetables, nutrition bars and nuts.

That sounds about right in general (minus the psychologists). Britney Spears and Halle Berry seemed to have mostly reasonable plans, but without more detail it is hard to judge.

For more information on recomposition of the human body in a scientific (and sane) way, here's a very good resource (albeit not exhaustive) of articles: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/articles

Barack Obama: redefining the male physique?

Subtext: Barack Obama works out for 45 minutes, six days a week. What can other men learn from his example? (HT: drudge)

Well, I've got an answer to that question: work on the arms, Barack. They're looking a bit thin and effeminate. Take a look at the picture near the bottom. I don't see chiseled abs. In fact, all I can make out is the outside boundary of the rectus abdominus muscle (no visible individual abdominal muscles). Barely. (granted it's better than the 'average' American, but that ain't sayin' much, is it now?) If you saw a pic of the arms by themselves, you'd be hard-pressed to know whether they belonged to a man or a woman. If this pic of Obama is the epitome of a masculine physique, I'm just going to have to say "no thanks."

Now, if I remember correctly, didn't the MSM everywhere blast W for working out so much? Why yes. Yes they did. From that LA Times article:

"Am I the only person who finds this (W's exercise program) disturbing? ...What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy."

Really? I'm still waiting for the LA Times to write a followup about Obama (crickets chirping. Somewhere in the distance a dog barks. Etc.). More on this here (HT: MM) . ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) at it's best (the guy really can do no wrong!). So I guess the moral of this story is, if you're going to be fit, make sure to be a democrat. More:

"Since the election in November, he has continued to work out with an intensity that betrays almost an addiction. "

I guess no creepiness there, eh MSM? Obsession in the Bush article (bad), addiction here (good). It should be noted that they probably shouldn't use the word 'addiction' with a guy that was using cocaine and other drugs for an extended time, but I digress.

""He's definitely well-toned and you only get that through resistance training when you work at between 65 and 75 per cent of your maximum heart rate," Ransom says"

I can't help critiquing faults in knowledge, so here is just one: note to Ransom - resistance training is done to increase muscular protein synthesis, not increase heart rate. In fact, heart rate (HR) is important mostly in cardiovascular exercise, not in lifting weights. In weights, it's load (have to increase weight you lift over time), time under tension (TUT), volume (how many sets, reps), and frequency (how often each body part is worked). That's the basics. No HR fluff. That, coupled with a diet rich in protein, does the body good.

In any case, the article goes on:

"Dr Michael Roizen, an American doctor who has assessed the medical records of presidents as far back as Theodore Roosevelt, believes one year in the White House equals two in the rest of the world when it comes to stress."

When did Obama release his medical records? I thought he just released a 1-page summary? Where's the MSM on this? Where have they been (if anyone should ever pry their heads out of Obama's behind, maybe someone can ask them)? Here's where they've been:

"No presidential candidate should get to the point that he has locked up his
party’s nomination without public vetting of his health," wrote the
NYT (questioning McCain's health)

No comparable statement on Obama. Anywhere in the MSM. Only conservative blogs and talkshows (that are under threat of censure from the FCC via the un'fairness doctine').

One final shot:

"Obama is in a different league to the tennis-playing Tony Blair, and he makes
Vladimir Putin's bare-chested fishing shots look embarrassing. "

So let's see the frontal comparison:

Honestly, Obama is looking a bit puny to me. Especially in the lanky, thin arms (leg conditioning unknown for either). Both have moobs, and an equivalent body fat percentage (about 18% I'd say, albeit it's hard to tell from only a single picture as individual vs vary in where their major fat stores reside). Putin has 10 years on Obama. So I have to give the edge to Vlad from the KGB. How is this comparison embarrassing for Putin?

A nutty phenomenon

Eat nuts, poop energy! Well, at least that's part of a theory involving the consumption of nutritionally-dense nuts without weight gain. (via Lyle McDonald at bodyrecomposition)

"...a fairly large body of research indicates that nuts don’t seem to impact body weight negatively, at all. That is, various research studies have provided some amount of nuts in addition to the normal diet to see what happens to body weight. In general, the addition of nuts has had limited or no impact on body weight. Phrased differently, despite the addition of calories from nuts, weight doesn’t change/isn’t affected. What’s going on?"

Pretty nutty I would say.

High Caffeine Intake Linked To Hallucinations

High caffeine consumption could be linked to a greater tendency to hallucinate, a new research study suggests. And who did they get to participate in this study? Why students of course!

And there's this: "Caffeine use can lead to a condition called caffeine intoxication. Symptoms include nervousness, irritability, anxiety, muscle twitching, insomnia, headaches, and heart palpitations. This is not commonly seen when daily caffeine intake is less than 250mg." (emphasis mine) Insomnia? You don't say... (and isn't that the point if you're a grad student?) (via ScienceDaily)

The Food Champion!

Let Me Tell You What Your "Food Champion" Can Do With That Clipboard. "God help our British cousins. Christianity is nearly dead there, militant Islam is on the rise, they've lost pride in their once great culture, criminals have more rights than their victims and they're creating a busybody nannystate that may be unsurpassed in the annals of human history,..."

Never saw that coming. Actually, yes. Yes I did.

The name's Monella. Sal Monella

Officials: Toss salmonella-linked peanut butter. Do ya really think so?

Obesity scam?

Also via Drudge: Obese Americans now outweigh the merely overweight

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50863H20090109?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

My solution: redefine the lower limit for someone to be obese and viola! Problem solved! But really, defining someone as overweight is ridiculous. Some people have bigger bones than other. Musculature varies also. In fact, most bodybuilders would be considered 'obese' even though they have hardly any fat on them and are generally much more healthy than the average American. BMI is simply a bad indicator. Should go with a physical quantity that takes body fat percentage into account. In fact, how about we just go with body fat percentage?