Friday, November 26, 2010

What's Not New is New: The Perfect Diet, FMS, and Food Porn!

This shit ain't new, son.
There's been a fair bit o' hullabaloo about a "new" (note super dorky face, double hand mime quotations) study based off the Diogenes Project that's being toted as the perfect diet.  The premise is that a high protein, low GI diet (hmm, that seems familiar) fared better for weight loss and keeping weight off that 4 other combos of diet (low pro/low GI, low pro/high GI, high pro/high GI, or a control of mod pro, uncontrolled GI)..

Background

Studies of weight-control diets that are high in protein or low in glycemic index have reached varied conclusions, probably owing to the fact that the studies had insufficient power.

Methods

We enrolled overweight adults from eight European countries who had lost at least 8% of their initial body weight with a 3.3-MJ (800-kcal) low-calorie diet. Participants were randomly assigned, in a two-by-two factorial design, to one of five ad libitum diets to prevent weight regain over a 26-week period: a low-protein and low-glycemic-index diet, a low-protein and high-glycemic-index diet, a high-protein and low-glycemic-index diet, a high-protein and high-glycemic-index diet, or a control diet.

Results

A total of 1209 adults were screened (mean age, 41 years; body-mass index [the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters], 34), of whom 938 entered the low-calorie-diet phase of the study. A total of 773 participants who completed that phase were randomly assigned to one of the five maintenance diets; 548 completed the intervention (71%). Fewer participants in the high-protein and the low-glycemic-index groups than in the low-protein–high-glycemic-index group dropped out of the study (26.4% and 25.6%, respectively, vs. 37.4%; P=0.02 and P=0.01 for the respective comparisons). The mean initial weight loss with the low-calorie diet was 11.0 kg. In the analysis of participants who completed the study, only the low-protein–high-glycemic-index diet was associated with subsequent significant weight regain (1.67 kg; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48 to 2.87). In an intention-to-treat analysis, the weight regain was 0.93 kg less (95% CI, 0.31 to 1.55) in the groups assigned to a high-protein diet than in those assigned to a low-protein diet (P=0.003) and 0.95 kg less (95% CI, 0.33 to 1.57) in the groups assigned to a low-glycemic-index diet than in those assigned to a high-glycemic-index diet (P=0.003). The analysis involving participants who completed the intervention produced similar results. The groups did not differ significantly with respect to diet-related adverse events.

Conclusions

In this large European study, a modest increase in protein content and a modest reduction in the glycemic index led to an improvement in study completion and maintenance of weight loss. (Funded by the European Commission; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00390637.)



My Thoughts:  Unimpressed?  Yeah, me too.  But why am a bashing a study that seems to be in the best interest of global health?  IT'S BECAUSE THIS SHIT AIN'T NEW, nor, in my opinion, IS IT NEWS-WORTHY.   I find it frustrating, because, by default, for millions of years we've been eating the perfect (read: High protein, low GI) diet.  Meat, veggies, some fruit, few nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar.  While the mass media prances around making not-so-fucking-newsworthy news, folks in the know will just keep on keeping' on.
This is gonna rock.

Gray Cook's Functional Movement Screen is a system of movements and scores used to identify weaknesses and imbalances in athletes; I currently have training in this, and we utilize it yearly at the fire department to screen our members for potential injuries.  This is something I've wanted to incorporate at CFLA for a while, and while great minds think alike, greater minds make things happen.  Due to the amount of time Big G has spent in the physio clinic, it appears he's made some stellar connections: This weekend at CFLA we are fortunate enough to be spending two days with Tim Takahashi; he'll be teaching us the FMS, with a specific angle on treating Crossfit athletes.  This is going to be a phenomenal seminar, and something that will be invaluable for the coaches and clients.

Food Porn!
Bacon-wrapped ring-necked pheasants that my buddy JF (aka Mr White) gave to me.  Added onion, sweet potato, celery, and a super-secret dry spice rub.











We had some friends over for dinner, and BA whipped this up while I was downing some Patron with Sean'O.  It's an appetizer of carpaccio, cheese, cherry tomatoes, and lamb, and was totally awesome.









Breakfast of farm fresh eggs, avocado, spinach, a leftover steak, a nectarine, coffee w/ coconut milk, and a few walnuts.   This is standard morning fuel.

Various Training Sessions 

Right now life is a bit of a gong show for me outside of the gym; I haven't had the luxury of time, so I haven't been there much.  Nonetheless, training continues:

Nov 21st, Sunday, 10AM, Firehall #1
Treadmill run, 20min at 7MPH, 2% grade.
Just an easy run.  Some days, I actually crave this.  Weird, I know.

Nov 22nd, Monday, 1PM, CFLA
Over Head Squat, 5RM
65#x10, 95#x5, 115#x5, 135#x5, 155#x5, 175#x5(PR)
This felt pretty damn solid, which was surprising; my knee was fine (during), but my left wrist was screaming, even with wraps.  I'd like to eventually hit 225# for a single, but that's a goal that far in the distance for now.

2PM, U of L
Rock Climb x2hr
Finally finished off a 5.11a route that I've been trying for a while.  There's no question I'm getting stronger and more fluid with my climbs.

Nov 23rd, Tuesday, 6PM, Firehall#1
Set up a brand new C2 rower, and took it on a 5000m maiden voyage
19:11(PR).  Goddamn knee is still sketchy as hell, but once I got into it, it loosened up.  Was just planning an easy 5k, and was actually screwing around with a low S/R of 23-25, and pausing at the end of the stroke for a second.  I'd like to break into the 18 minute range, which is totally doable.

Nov 25th, Thursday, 2PM, U of L
Rock climb x 2hrs.  Working a new 5.11 that's kicking my ass, royally. 

Nov 26th, Friday, 12PM, Garage
Overhead Press
25#x20, 45#x10, 75#x5, 85#x5, 95#x5, 105#x5, 115#x5, 120#x3
Meh.  Expected more, and didn't expect to be trashed from climbing.

AMRAP in 12 Minutes
5 Ring Dips
10 Pullups
15 Ball Slams (20#)
8 Rounds.