Knowing your fat percentage is one of the best fitness tests you can do.
The best way to assess your body fat percentage is to get me to whip out my fat calipers.
However, for those of you who don’t fancy that experience, I quite like the zone body fat calculator.
Get a tape measure with inches and fill-out this interesting online calculator
If you start thinking about the function of cholesterol, it allegedly (among other things) modulates membrane fluidity over a range of temperatures.
in Habitat temperature is an important determinant of cholesterol contents in copepods where it states “The most consistent trend is the positive relationship between cholesterol content and habitat temperature. Species residing in warmer habitats (e.g. Centropages typicus, Eurytemora affinis) had approximately twice the cholesterol of species living in colder waters (e.g. Calanus glacialis, Euchaeta norvegica). A similar pattern was observed for comparisons of species within genera (Calanus, Acartia and Centropages), with the species abundant at lower latitudes having more cholesterol than the northern congener. These data indicate that habitat temperature is an important determinant of cholesterol content, and cholesterol endows membranes with the stability required for a range of body temperatures”.
Maybe crustations and humans probably don’t have that much in common.
If you are curious about cholesterol, here is an interesting slide share
Ive only just discovered the existence of Thincs, a body that questions the link between saturated fats , cholesterol and heart disease.
According to their website, “The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS) is a steadily growing group of scientists, physicians, other academicians and science writers from various countries. Members of this group represent different views about the causation of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, some of them are in conflict with others, but this is a normal part of science. What we all oppose is that animal fat and high cholesterol play a role. The aim with this website is to inform our colleagues and the public that this idea is not supported by scientific evidence; in fact, for many years a huge number of scientific studies have directly contradicted it”.
It seems to be accumulating studies here
This is an amazing read, and is part of my cholesterol studies
“Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans” found here
take home message is here:
“Studies in animals have documented that, compared with glucose, dietary fructose induces dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. To assess the relative effects of these dietary sugars during sustained consumption in humans, overweight and obese subjects consumed glucose- or fructose-sweetened beverages providing 25% of energy requirements for 10 weeks. Although both groups exhibited similar weight gain during the intervention, visceral adipose volume was significantly increased only in subjects consuming fructose. Fasting plasma triglyceride concentrations increased by approximately 10% during 10 weeks of glucose consumption but not after fructose consumption. In contrast, hepatic de novo lipogenesis (DNL) and the 23-hour postprandial triglyceride AUC were increased specifically during fructose consumption. Similarly, markers of altered lipid metabolism and lipoprotein remodeling, including fasting apoB, LDL, small dense LDL, oxidized LDL, and postprandial concentrations of remnant-like particle–triglyceride and –cholesterol significantly increased during fructose but not glucose consumption. In addition, fasting plasma glucose and insulin levels increased and insulin sensitivity decreased in subjects consuming fructose but not in those consuming glucose. These data suggest that dietary fructose specifically increases DNL, promotes dyslipidemia, decreases insulin sensitivity, and increases visceral adiposity in overweight/obese adults”
If you know me well, you’ll know I’m running some daily tests on my cholesterol status ( results due at the end of the year).
Here was a surprise correlation that I thought I should highlight now.
So cholesterol is all about saturated fat! Right? So if you woke up and only had 3-4 cups of coffee ( with 1 sugar and skimmed milk) over 5 hours, missed breakfast and lunch, you’d expect your cholesterol to be low or high?
Enter Cafestol.
Check out Coffee Raises Cholesterol .
Cafestol, a compound found in coffee, elevates cholesterol by hijacking a receptor in an intestinal pathway critical to its regulation, according to a recent article. Allegedly the effect is negated if you pass the coffee through an old fashioned paper filter, but still, who knew!!
“In fact, cafestol is the most potent dietary cholesterol-elevating agent known, said Dr. David Moore, professor of molecular and cellular biology at BCM, and Dr. Marie-Louise Ricketts, a postdoctoral student and first author of the report. Cafetiere, or French press coffee, boiled Scandinavian brew and espresso contain the highest levels of the compound, which is removed by paper filters used in most other brewing processes. Removing caffeine does not remove cafestol.”
Wikipedia overview here
Check out Harvard here
Well, its all chia seeds now!
29 grams of chia seeds provides up to 42% of your daily recommended fiber, plus phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and omega-3 fatty acids ( which are good btw!). Don’t take my dubious word for it. Look up :
“A dietary pattern including nopal, chia seed, soy protein, and oat reduces serum triglycerides and glucose intolerance in patients with metabolic syndrome” says so (check it out here).
What a read.
But, what this really means is that if you don’t include things like chia seeds and psyllium husks in your diet, you are a bit of a moron.
I should say, however, that I’d never heard of “nopal” until I read the above study. It’s a prickly pear cactus, comes from Mexico and has a high antioxidant, vitamin, mineral, and fiber content.
Coming from a functional fitness back ground, the sit up procedure suggested by Goulding is a bit of a shocker!!
Lie on the floor with your knees bent at approximately right angles, with feet flat on the ground. Your hands should be resting on your thighs. Just slide your hands along your thighs to touch the top of your knees, then back to the starting position (don’t tug or strain your neck)
Do it for 1 minute
Allow the table below to Judge you!
| Age | 18-25 | 26-35 | 36-45 | 46-55 | 56-65 | 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excellent | >49 | >45 | >41 | >35 | >31 | >28 |
| Good | 44-49 | 40-45 | 35-41 | 29-35 | 25-31 | 22-28 |
| Above average | 39-43 | 35-39 | 30-34 | 25-28 | 21-24 | 19-21 |
| Average | 35-38 | 31-34 | 27-29 | 22-24 | 17-20 | 15-18 |
| Below Average | 31-34 | 29-30 | 23-26 | 18-21 | 13-16 | 11-14 |
| Poor | 25-30 | 22-28 | 17-22 | 13-17 | 9-12 | 7-10 |
| Very Poor | <25 | <22 | <17 | <13 | <9 | <7 |
| Age | 18-25 | 26-35 | 36-45 | 46-55 | 56-65 | 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excellent | >43 | >39 | >33 | >27 | >24 | >23 |
| Good | 37-43 | 33-39 | 27-33 | 22-27 | 18-24 | 17-23 |
| Above average | 33-36 | 29-32 | 23-26 | 18-21 | 13-17 | 14-16 |
| Average | 29-32 | 25-28 | 19-22 | 14-17 | 10-12 | 11-13 |
| Below Average | 25-28 | 21-24 | 15-18 | 10-13 | 7-9 | 5-10 |
| Poor | 18-24 | 13-20 | 7-14 | 5-9 | 3-6 | 2-4 |
| Very Poor | <18 | <13 | <7 | <5 | ❤ | <2 |
The 12 Minute Run test
If you have 12 minutes spare, plus warm up and cool down time, you can find out: how aerobically fit you are, a theoretical VO2 Max figure and how well you do for your age. Run, walk, crawl as far as you can in 12 mins. Then compare here.
If you want a VO2 Max “figure” try this (very crude) calculation:
VO2max = (22.351 x kilometers) – 11.288 = mL/kg/min
Then look yourself up here:
Try not to kill yourself. You may need to build up running times, and possibly get medical clearance. Some need to walk. It doesn’t matter if your first go is a poor result. Use it to motivate you to get better.
Email me for more support Andrew@crossfitlondonuk.com
If we believe history there were 2 great successful diets: The Paleo diet, and the World war 2 diet (true, we have never been so healthy). Both were dramatically different in the types of food they used. Both relied on one thing for success, You couldn’t get hold of anything to eat. Paleo is about running around the savanna trying to catch something with a pointed stick before you died of starvation. World war 2 meant rationing.
If it helps there are 2 possible approaches to healthy eating ;
Both of these concepts feed into habit creation, and picking the right battles.
Let me give you the common story among successful weight managers. It happens to be the same for our top Crossfit performers. There is nothing spectacular! There is no running around the streets, collapsing on your knee and praising God screaming out your new found goals
” I’ll never be fat again…….” “ill never eat cake again”
Time and time again, religious revival campaigns have converted thousands, only for them to relapse days ( sometimes minutes) later. The more people tell you their extreme, detailed, diet plans , how much weight they intend to loose, the more absolute rubbish the ideas and the more appalling the results.
Results come from deciding on long term goals and plodding towards them. Result then come from building in habits, enjoying set backs, picking the right battles but keeping on the road. Ask any of our olympic lifters, crossfitters and gymnasts.
Dramatic, greedy , short term goals are deadly, stupid, destructive and of no value. You can as much meaningfully change your weight in 2 weeks as you can become a lawyer in a weekend (although I’m sure there is an online course somewhere that claims you can do that)
Once you start seriously training you begin to come across all sorts of negative and weird stuff.
Most of it, generated by other people.
As its often generated by people its all too easy to imply the motive of malice.
It’s too easy, for example, to feel that your strength programme has been designed just to make your life difficult by a coach who doesn’t like you. In a metabolic conditioning class you can genuinely feel hatred in the voice of the trainer who enthusiastically screams ” 10 more burpees” at you. The inclusion of running if you hate running, rowing , if you get sea sick and pull ups if you have weedy arms can seem as conclusive evidence that someone is out to get you.
Speaking personally I’ve been to a class where someone else stands in my favourite place, while someone else grabbed my favourite bar. In the changing area, people have intentionally changed where I wanted to change and have left their bags where I wanted to leave mine.
At the same time this was happening, and god knows, that was enough, that instructor forgot that I liked to do that weird hip stretch, and then skipped out the rope climbing.
I love a rope climb. The guy must have hated, no, loathed me, to deprive me of the rope climb I’d been so looking forward to.
So, you can see my plight. I was stuck at a gym where everybody hated me! Their malice stood out like a beacon declaring “we hate Andrew, trip him up if you can, make his life difficult”
One night I tearfully confessed this to my beloved partner. I was a bit down and depressed because everybody hated me. She carefully listen to my points ( or, “whines” as she later described them ). and then told me about Hanlon’s Razor
Hanlon’s razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways, including: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”.
It isn’t that people hate you. It’s just that they are stupid.
Cut them some slack.
Andrew Stemler 