Jason Prini

“No one wants to admit that muscles grow incredibly slowly, … and that most full-grown men (training properly) won’t gain more than 10-15 pounds of muscle in their lifetime” – Brad Pilon

This is something that’s taken me a while to fully understand. While it’s a little discouraging at first, it also means muscle loss is just as incredibly slow, which eliminates anxiety about missing the occasional workout or protein intake target. Life first, then muscle. Minimalist programming done right over the long-term (years and decades) is all almost anyone needs, but what’s a minimalist program?

My example is I lift 2-3x a week, doing just 4 movements with as much weight as I can; squat, benchpress, deadlift, weighted chinups. I start with a few warmup sets and then 1-3 work sets of 5-12 reps (depending on movement and where I am in the program) resting 2-5min between sets and exercises. It takes me less than an hour to complete each session. As I progress up through strength milestones my plan will become even more minimalist; splitting my stimulus to just 1-2 movements per workout 3x a week.

Even in extremes, our understanding matches nature.

“… astronomers were curious to see if their real-world measurements would deviate from the math produced by Einstein’s equations; they calculated the amount of gravitational radiation emitted to see if the theory could accurately predict the rate of orbital decay.
…
The figures matched.”

I find it interesting that the LHC can recreate even more extreme conditions, albeit ultra-brief  & ultra-small.

Fibre is often immensely under-appreciated. It sits somewhere between a micronutrient (vitamins & minerals) and a macro-nutrient (carbs, protein, fat). There are generally two kinds of fibre, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibre mixes into a gel in water (like the psyllium husk in Metamucil), and offers about 2kcal per gram energy to the body (about 1/2 the energy of non-fibre carbohydrates). Insoluble fibre doesn’t mix with water, offers almost zero energy to the body as it’s generally not absorbed, and is more commonly referred to as “roughage”.

Both kinds of fibre are very important to have in your diet. I follow a “flexible dieting” or “If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM)” approach to my diet. I eat mostly whole-foods, but eat anything I want as long as it fits into my daily calorie and macro targets. I also consider fibre my fourth macronutrient; it’s just important to me to meet my daily fibre intake target as it is to meet my daily protein intake. Actually, it’s probably even more important than protein.

There’s all kinds of experimental evidence supporting the long-term micronutrient benefits of fibre. Superior cholesterol, improved insulin sensitivity, and many others. But these are more long-term, generally small, accumulative benefits. Fibre also offers shorter-term, but much more profound macro-benefits as well;

• Fibre slows digestion, giving the body more time to absorb the nutrients in your food
• Fibre evens-out spikes of blood sugar levels, which can help to reduce hunger and improve diet adherence
• Fibre gives you swiss-clock regular bowl movements (not to mention making them magical)
• Fibre makes you feel “fuller” longer, helping you when you’re eating at a deficit

There is such a thing as too much fibre though. It’s common for us to think “If a little of something is good, a LOT of something must be even better!”; this is rarely true. Everything is only “good” in the appropriate context. If you eat too much fibre it can start to diminish the body’s ability to absorb nutrients as they become engulfed inside a barrier of fibre.

How much you should be eating depends on your diet, but I’ve set my daily intake between 0.15g and 0.3g per pound of bodyweight (~25-50g), scaled with my food intake.

Do you know how much daily fibre you’re getting? I track my daily fibre intake along with my fat, protein, and carb intake. It’s never been easier to track calories now that we have tools like myfitnesspal and their smartphone apps.

What’s the best form of fibre? In my opinion the fibre in fresh, non-starchy fruits & veggies is best. But this is more about hitting multiple birds with one stone, getting both the fibre and micronutrients I need rather than the fibre itself being superior. Fibre is fibre. When I don’t get the fibre I need from the whole-foods I eat, I supplement with 1-4 tbsp of dry psyllium husk mixed well in water. You can get it at Bulk Barn for about $15/kg.

My spring cut is going extremely well and I’m approaching the point where the fat that’s left to go is “stubborn fat”. This isn’t just a myth, not all fat is the same. But first a little general background on fat cells*.

All cells have little receptors sticking out from their surface (picture a ham riddled with cloves), kind of like how you have ears sticking out from your head. These receptors “listen” for “signals” from the body. The signals come in the form of molecules that are attracted by charge and snap into these receptors sending a cascade of chemical reactions into the cell.

The reaction I’m working to signal by controlling my environment (diet & activity) is to release the maximum possible amount of fat energy out of fat cells to fuel my metabolism. I’m also working to send my body the signal to prefer fat and NOT release energy from lean body mass (muscle loss), but that’s another post.

Some of the “loudest” molecules to signal the release of fat energy from fat cells are known as catecholamines (a group of hormones that include adrenaline). When these compounds snap into the fat cell’s receptors the resulting chemical cascade activates hormone sensitive lipase (and other compounds) inside fat cells, starting and driving a reaction in the cell that packages-up and moves fat out of the cell so the body can use it for fuel.

But here’s where it gets frustrating. Fat cells don’t only have receptors that drive the cell to release fat. They also have receptors that do the opposite, stop the cell from releasing fat. b2 receptors message for releasing fat, a2 receptors stop fat release (do note this is a great simplification). The proportion of b2:a2 receptors on fat cells is what determines how stubborn fat is to remove from the cell. If a fat cell has more a2 than b2 receptors then it’s a “stubborn” fat cell; the message to release fat can easily be drowned-out by the “louder” message to keep fat.

For those horrid a2 receptors a potent “do not lose fat” message comes from the presence of insulin (another hormone) snapping into them. This makes sense once you understand a little about insulin. Insulin is elevated in the presence of elevated food intake. It’s seems logical to me that the body should stop using fat for energy when you have food energy available. Recently there’s been a sharp rise of insulin nutrition mythology, but most of the insulin-fear-mongering out there seems to come from just misunderstanding the role this little wonder-hormone plays (here’s some great info on common insulin myths).

So to summarize here are two things that contribute interconnectedly to fat loss (FYI this is not the whole story):

1. The magnitude & amplitude of the signal to mobilize fat; the amount of catecholamines and/or insulin present and the length of time their levels are elevated.
2. How receptive fat cells are to this signal; how many and type of receptors are on the surface of the fat cells.

Obviously stubborn fat is the last to go when dieting. The amount and where you have stubborn fat is largely genetic. Men typically have it concentrated in the lower abdominal area & lower back, while women tend to carry it on their hips & thighs.

If you can’t change how much stubborn fat you have, what’s the most effective way to keep insulin low and catecholamines levels high? Don’t eat. Fasting minimizes the fat-loss-blocking a2-receptor activity due to more time spent in a low-insulin state. The catecholamine b2-receptor signal to release fat is therefore relatively maximized.

I’m using intermittent fasting, eating all my daily calories in an 8 hour window, fasting the other 16 hours. See more info here on this approach, here is another sound approach, and here’s a great review of several approaches to intermittent fasting.

I also try to add low impact steady state (LISS) activity when nearing the end of the fast. This could be a 45 min walk, a casual bike ride, even cleaning the house. It’s important not to work too hard, as higher intensity exercise will shift your metabolism away from using fat as a fuel. The LISS is mostly to drive more blood flow to those stubborn body fat areas, maximizing exposure to the catecholamine signals to release fat energy.

As I get down to the very last bit of stubborn fat, I may add a dose of yohimbine prior to my LISS. Yohimbine is a known a2-receptor inhibitor, increases blood flow, is very safe when used responsibly, and has a very short half-life.

So to summarize and list my tactics to tackle stubborn body fat, in order of effectiveness:

• Fast to minimize the “save-fat” a2-receptor activity due to more time spent in a low-insulin state.
• Do low impact steady state (LISS) activity near the end of my fast, when “lose-fat” b2-receptor messaging is most effective.
• Strategically dose supplements shown to aid in stubborn fat loss.

Most people won’t ever get down to the stubborn fat. The average guy needs to approach or even be under 10% bodyfat before stubborn body fat makes up the majority of what’s left. It’s also very important that the above is pretty much useless outside excellent fundaments; appropriate diet & training. But if you’re looking to go from pretty lean to truly shredded, the above is valuable information.

*disclaimer – I am but a humble but voracious enthusiast. I am not a medical doctor or biochemist. The above is my current understanding and is likely incomplete, but I am very confident it is accurate.

I took a break from my training and nutrition regime from late last year until the end of February. During this time I gained a little weight and lost some strength. I decided to get back on track starting March and I began my realignment with a “cut”. A “cut” just means I’ve tweaked my diet & training to prioritize fat loss over muscle gain until I get town to my target weight.

Weight loss 101 (this is not the only path one can take):

1. Uncover your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) & set weekly caloric deficit.
2. Set daily protein intake to at least 0.82g per pound of bodyweight.
3. Set daily fat intake to 0.25g-0.5g per pound of bodyweight, essential fats get priority.
4. Set carbohydrates to fill remaining calories.
5. Track food intake (I use myfitnesspal.com) to meet macro & calorie targets until you reach your desired weight.

You’ll notice that there’s no “exercise” listed there. Fat loss is 80-90% diet. Sure you could do insane amounts of cardio to “burn off” excess fat, but this takes a lot more effort than most people realize, it will probably increase your appetite, and risks the loss of significant muscle mass. Although even if you avoid lots of cardio, you’ll still lose muscle.

One does not lose only fat when dieting for weight loss. Some lean mass will be consumed to make up the energy deficit that’s required to lose weight. There best we can do is minimize muscle loss, and the best way to do this is by setting an appropriate caloric deficit (there is a limit to how much fat you can burn each day), eating adequate protein, and weight training. I’ve set my protein macro at 1g/lb bodyweight per day, and it will increase to nearly 2g/lb by the time I get down to 12-10% body fat. I’m also restarting the Starting Strength weight training protocol, which should escalate the intensity of training in step with my diet and body comp changes.

Results? It hasn’t even been 3 weeks since I began my cut, I’ve already lost 12 pounds, and I have yet to do any exercise at all. I’m on track to lose ~25 pounds by the end of April, when I transition the priority away from fat loss and back into muscle gain.

update (03/25): 3-week weigh-in: 15 pounds lost.

I sold my 27″ iMac primary computer for a 13″ Macbook Air in June 2012. I’ve been using my MBA as my primary computer since then (I add a 24″ screen when at home). I feel confident that what I have been feeling since I made the switch is not going to change: The MBA is the best computer I have ever owned.

Although this is not entirely true. Stepping back there is no question that my iPhone5 is the best computer I have ever owned. I’ve had it over 6 months and it still surprises me. While it’s my primary “away from keyboard” device and compliments my primary computer extremely well, it’s not where I do most of my work. My iPhone5 is the nail-set to my hammer.

And what a hammer the MBA is! Not only is it built extremely well, it’s fantastically light which makes taking it on client-site days is a breeze. The display is the best non-retina screen you can get from Apple, and its SSD makes it shockingly quick, even after running it continuously for 9 months.

It’s totally fine running a dozen programs (including Photoshop) and dozens of browser tabs simultaneously and even moderate video editing is quite bearable. It’s a great computer, period.