Bigger Leaner Stronger

by Michael Matthews

  Metabolic adaptations can persist long after weight loss has stopped, but they can also be easily reversed by raising your calories, lifting weights, and eating a high-protein diet.

  Your body responds to calorie restriction with countermeasures meant to stall weight loss, but there’s no “mode” it enters or physiological switch that flips to magically block weight loss.

  Meal frequency has no significant effects on total daily energy expenditure or weight loss.

  If you want to lose fat quickly and not muscle, then you want to include resistance training in your weight loss regimen.

  Park M. Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds. CNN Website. http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html. November 8, 2010. Accessed August 15, 2018.

  Peterson H. A teacher who lost 56 pounds eating only McDonald’s is starring in a documentary to show kids about ‘healthy’ eating. Business Insider Website. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-lose-weight-eating-only-mcdonalds-2015-10. October 13, 2015. Accessed August 15, 2018.

  Innes E. Fitness fanatic claims to be in the best shape of his life despite only eating MCDONALD’S for a month. Daily Mail Website. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2643936/Fitness-fanatic-claims-best-shape-life-despite-ONLY-eating-McDonalds.html. May 30, 2014. Accessed August 15, 2018.

  Romieu I, Dossus L, Barquera S, et al. Energy balance and obesity: what are the main drivers? Cancer Causes Control. 2017;28(3):247-258. doi:10.1007/s10552-017-0869-z.

  Lean MEJ, Astrup A, Roberts SB. Making progress on the global crisis of obesity and weight management. BMJ. 2018;361:k2538. doi:10.1136/BMJ.K2538.

  Johnston CS, Tjonn SL, Swan PD, White A, Hutchins H, Sears B. Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006;83(5):1055-1061. doi:10.1093/ajcn/83.5.1055.

  Phillips SA, Jurva JW, Syed AQ, et al. Benefit of Low-Fat Over Low-Carbohydrate Diet on Endothelial Health in Obesity. Hypertension. 2008;51(2):376-382. doi:10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.107.101824.

  Sacks FM, Bray GA, Carey VJ, et al. Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates. N Engl J Med. 2009;360(9):859-873. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0804748.

  Gardner CD, Trepanowski JF, Del Gobbo LC, et al. Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion. JAMA. 2018;319(7):667. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0245.

  Surwit RS, Feinglos MN, McCaskill CC, et al. Metabolic and behavioral effects of a high-sucrose diet during weight loss. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997;65(4):908-915. doi:10.1093/ajcn/65.4.908.

  West J, de Looy A. Weight loss in overweight subjects following low-sucrose or sucrose-containing diets. Int J Obes. 2001;25(8):1122-1128. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0801652.

  Cook A, Pryer J, Shetty P. The problem of accuracy in dietary surveys. Analysis of the over 65 UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2000;54(8):611-616.

  Buhl KM, Gallagher D, Hoy K, Matthews DE, Heymsfield SB. Unexplained Disturbance in Body Weight Regulation. J Am Diet Assoc. 1995;95(12):1393-1400. doi:10.1016/S0002-8223(95)00367-3.

  Urban LE, Dallal GE, Robinson LM, Ausman LM, Saltzman E, Roberts SB. The Accuracy of Stated Energy Contents of Reduced-Energy, Commercially Prepared Foods. J Am Diet Assoc. 2010;110(1):116-123. doi:10.1016/j.jada.2009.10.003.

  CFR - Code of Federal Regulations Title 21. U.S. Food & Drug Administration Website. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.9. April 1, 2017. Accessed August 15, 2018.

  Horton TJ, Drougas H, Brachey A, Reed GW, Peters JC, Hill JO. Fat and carbohydrate overfeeding in humans: different effects on energy storage. Am J Clin Nutr. 1995;62(1):19-29. doi:10.1093/ajcn/62.1.19.

  Westerterp-Plantenga MS, Nieuwenhuizen A, Tomé D, Soenen S, Westerterp KR. Dietary Protein, Weight Loss, and Weight Maintenance. Annu Rev Nutr. 2009;29(1):21-41. doi:10.1146/annurev-nutr-080508-141056.

  Horton TJ, Drougas H, Brachey A, Reed GW, Peters JC, Hill JO. Fat and carbohydrate overfeeding in humans: different effects on energy storage. Am J Clin Nutr. 1995;62(1):19-29. doi:10.1093/ajcn/62.1.19; Leaf A, Antonio J. The Effects of Overfeeding on Body Composition: The Role of Macronutrient Composition - A Narrative Review. Int J Exerc Sci. 2017;10(8):1275-1296.

  Siler SQ, Neese RA, Hellerstein MK. De novo lipogenesis, lipid kinetics, and whole-body lipid balances in humans after acute alcohol consumption. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70(5):928-936. doi:10.1093/ajcn/70.5.928; Shelmet JJ, Reichard GA, Skutches CL, Hoeldtke RD, Owen OE, Boden G. Ethanol causes acute inhibition of carbohydrate, fat, and protein oxidation and insulin resistance. J Clin Invest. 1988;81(4):1137-1145. doi:10.1172/JCI113428.

  Stallknecht B, Dela F, Helge JW. Are blood flow and lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue influenced by contractions in adjacent muscles in humans? Am J Physiol Metab. 2007;292(2):E394-E399. doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00215.2006.

  Kostek MA, Pescatello LS, Seip RL, et al. Subcutaneous Fat Alterations Resulting from an Upper-Body Resistance Training Program. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2007;39(7):1177-1185. doi:10.1249/mss.0b0138058a5cb.

  Vispute SS, Smith JD, LeCheminant JD, Hurley KS. The Effect of Abdominal Exercise on Abdominal Fat. J Strength Cond Res. 2011;25(9):2559-2564. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181fb4a46.

  Leibel RL, Rosenbaum M, Hirsch J. Changes in Energy Expenditure Resulting from Altered Body Weight. N Engl J Med. 1995;332(10):621-628. doi:10.1056/NEJM199503093321001; Camps SG, Verhoef SP, Westerterp KR. Weight loss, weight maintenance, and adaptive thermogenesis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013;97(5):990-994. doi:10.3945/ajcn.112.050310; Zinchenko A. Metabolic Damage: do Negative Metabolic Adaptations During Underfeeding Persist After Refeeding in Non-Obese Populations? Med Res Arch. 2016;4(8). doi:10.18103/mra.v4i8.908.

  Bryner RW, Ullrich IH, Sauers J, et al. Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. J Am Coll Nutr. 1999;18(2):115-121.

  University of Minnesota. Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene., Keys A, Simonson E, Sturgeon Skinner A, Wells SM, University of Minnesota. Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene. The Biology of Human Starvation. University of Minnesota Press; 1950.

  Zinchenko A. Metabolic Damage: do Negative Metabolic Adaptations During Underfeeding Persist After Refeeding in Non-Obese Populations? Med Res Arch. 2016;4(8). doi:10.18103/mra.v4i8.908.

  Bellisle F, McDevitt R, Prentice AM. Meal frequency and energy balance. Br J Nutr. 1997;77 Suppl 1:S57-70.

  Cameron JD, Cyr M-J, Doucet É. Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet. Br J Nutr. 2009;103(8):1. doi:10.1017/S0007114509992984.

  Leidy HJ, Tang M, Armstrong CLH, Martin CB, Campbell WW. The Effects of Consuming Frequent, Higher Protein Meals on Appetite and Satiety During Weight Loss in Overweight/Obese Men. Obesity. 2011;19(4):818-824. doi:10.1038/oby.2010.203.

  Leidy HJ, Armstrong CLH, Tang M, Mattes RD, Campbell WW. The Influence of Higher Protein Intake and Greater Eating Frequency on Appetite Control in Overweight and Obese Men. Obesity. 2010;18(9):1725-1732. doi:10.1038/oby.2010.45.

  Leidy HJ, Campbell WW. The Effect of Eating Frequency on Appetite Control and Food Intake: Brief Synopsis of Controlled Feeding Studies. J Nutr. 2011;141(1):154-157. doi:10.3945/jn.109.114389.

  Ballor DL, Katch VL, Becque MD, Marks CR. Resistance weight training during caloric restriction enhances lean body weight maintenance. Am
J Clin Nutr. 1988;47(1):19-25. doi:10.1093/ajcn/47.1.19.

  Bryner RW, Ullrich IH, Sauers J, et al. Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. J Am Coll Nutr. 1999;18(2):115-121.

  Walberg JL. Aerobic exercise and resistance weight-training during weight reduction. Implications for obese persons and athletes. Sports Med. 1989;7(6):343-356; Stiegler P, Cunliffe A. The role of diet and exercise for the maintenance of fat-free mass and resting metabolic rate during weight loss. Sports Med. 2006;36(3):239-262; Ballor DL, Katch VL, Becque MD, Marks CR. Resistance weight training during caloric restriction enhances lean body weight maintenance. Am J Clin Nutr. 1988;47(1):19-25. doi:10.1093/ajcn/47.1.19.

  Sawyer BJ, Bhammar DM, Angadi SS, et al. Predictors of Fat Mass Changes in Response to Aerobic Exercise Training in Women. J Strength Cond Res. 2015;29(2):297-304. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000726.

  Melanson EL, Keadle SK, Donnelly JE, Braun B, King NA. Resistance to Exercise-Induced Weight Loss. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2013;45(8):1600-1609. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e31828ba942.

  Thomas DM, Bouchard C, Church T, et al. Why do individuals not lose more weight from an exercise intervention at a defined dose? An energy balance analysis. Obes Rev. 2012;13(10):835-847. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01012.x.

  Geliebter A, Maher MM, Gerace L, Gutin B, Heymsfield SB, Hashim SA. Effects of strength or aerobic training on body composition, resting metabolic rate, and peak oxygen consumption in obese dieting subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997;66(3):557-563. doi:10.1093/ajcn/66.3.557.

  Willis LH, Slentz CA, Bateman LA, et al. Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults. J Appl Physiol. 2012;113(12):1831-1837. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01370.2011.

  8

  The 10 Absolute Worst Muscle-Building Myths and Mistakes

  If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

  —ERICA JONG

  Nine out of ten people you see in the gym don’t train correctly.

  I could write an entire chapter cataloguing their mistakes, but here are some of the more common ones:

  They spend too much time on the wrong exercises.

  They undertrain and overtrain various muscle groups.

  They use poor form, especially on the more technical exercises.

  They use too light or too heavy weights.

  They rest too little or too much in between sets.

  In fact, what most people do in the gym doesn’t even qualify as training but is merely exercise.

  What’s the difference?

  Well, exercise is physical activity done for its own sake—to burn calories or improve energy levels or mood—whereas training is a systematic method of exercising done to achieve a specific, longer-term goal, like increased strength, muscle definition, or athleticism.

  There’s nothing inherently wrong with exercise (it beats sitting on your keister), but only training can give you the ripped type of physique that most guys really want.

  Exercise can make you healthier, but it guarantees nothing in the way of fat loss or muscle gain, the two biggest physiological levers you need to know how to work to build the body of your dreams.

  Unfortunately, most gymgoers don’t understand this, and that’s why days, weeks, months, and even years can go by with them doing the same old exercises, lifting the same old weights, and looking at the same old bodies.

  In the last chapter, you learned why so many men struggle to lose fat, and in this chapter, you’re going to learn why building muscle is far more difficult for most guys than it should be.

  Let’s get to it, starting with myth number one.

  Myth #1

  “Heavy Weightlifting Makes You Stronger but Not Bigger”

  If there’s one mainstream misconception that causes more harm to men’s physiques than any other, it’s this one.

  The idea that heavy weightlifting is purely or even mostly for strength and not muscle gain is absolutely incorrect.

  In fact, the most reliable way to gain a considerable amount of muscle is to gain a considerable amount of strength. There are several reasons for this that we’ll discuss in more detail later in this book, but they can be summarized like this:

  Heavy weightlifting produces large amounts of mechanical tension in your muscles.As you’ll soon learn, producing more and more mechanical tension in your muscles over time is the single most effective way to stimulate muscle growth.

  Heavy weightlifting causes greater activation of muscle fibers.Research shows that this results in a greater effect across a larger percentage of the muscle tissue.1

  This is why your number one goal as a natural weightlifter should be to increase your whole-body strength. And the most effective way to do that is heavy weightlifting.

  “Wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “if that’s true, then how can you explain those guys who are way stronger than they look?”

  Many people chalk up these outliers to steroids, superior genetics, or flawless technique, and while these things can be factors, the most important one is something most people don’t consider:

  Anatomy.

  While we all have the same muscles in our bodies and they’re all located in the same general regions, there are differences in how they’re attached to our skeletons.

  These discrepancies are usually small—only a centimeter or two—but they can translate into huge differences in natural strength.

  We don’t need to get too technical for the purposes of this discussion, but what it boils down to is mechanical advantage. Because muscles function as levers, where they attach to your bones greatly impacts how much force they’re able to produce and thus how much weight they’re able to move.

  These effects on strength can be staggering. Studies show that, thanks to anatomical differences, strength can vary by as much as 25 percent among people with identical amounts of lean mass.2

  In other words, one person can be up to 25 percent stronger than another with the same body composition.

  Similarly, some people’s muscles and bones are arranged in a way that allows them to lift far more than you’d expect based on their musculature.

  For example, if someone has short upper arms, they have a major advantage on the bench press (the bar doesn’t have to move as far), and if someone has long arms and short legs, they’re going to be particularly good at deadlifting.

  Some people are just born to push, pull, and squat tremendous amounts of weight, and some aren’t.

  If you’re worried that you’re in the latter camp, take heart because all this should only seriously concern you if you’re trying to become a competitive strength athlete.

  If you’re in the gym to build a strong, muscular, lean, and healthy body, though, you can achieve your goals with or without an anatomical leg up.

  Myth #2

  “Some Guys Just Don’t Have the Genetics to Get Big and Strong”

  For many, “genetics” is an unpalatable word.

  It’s often associated with things you want to change but can’t, and I’m not going to blow smoke—muscle building is one of those things. We all do have hard limits as to how much muscle we can gain.

  There are many physiological variables in play here, but you can get a fairly accurate estimate of your muscle-building potential by analyzing your bone structure.

  Research shows that people with larger bones tend to be more muscular than people with smaller frames.3 Bigger-boned people also tend to have higher testosterone levels and gain muscle faster when they start lifting weights.4

  What this means, then, is “big-boned” people have more genetic potential for strength and size than smaller folk. What qualifies as “big boned,” though
, and how do you measure up?

  Two of the best indicators of your overall bone structure are the circumferences of your wrists and ankles. Height being equal, people who have wider wrists and ankles tend to be naturally more muscular and have a higher potential for muscle growth than those with narrower ones.

  If you’re like me and you don’t even need to measure anything to know you have slender bones, don’t worry. Again, unless you want to be a top-tier bodybuilder or fitness competitor, you have nothing to worry about. You can gain more than enough muscle to look fantastic.

  Realize that most guys only need to gain about 20 to 25 pounds of muscle to have an impressive physique, and literally anybody can do that, no matter how skinny and weak they are when they touch a barbell for the first time.

  Myth #3

  “Heavy Weightlifting Is Dangerous”

  Many people think weightlifting, especially heavy weightlifting, is inherently dangerous, and I understand why.

  When you compare deadlifting, squatting, and bench pressing large amounts of weight to other forms of exercise, like jogging, cycling, or calisthenics, weightlifting looks more like a death wish than a discipline.

  Poke around on internet forums and you’ll find plenty to feed your anxiety. Personal stories range from the tame—mild joint and muscle aches and the like—to the downright horrific, with some long-time bodybuilders so incapacitated that they can’t even tie their shoes until the ibuprofen kicks in.

  And so weightlifting, and strength training in particular, has been saddled with a bum rap for decades now. Thankfully, the tides are turning and strength training is gaining more and more mainstream popularity, but many people still think that its dangers far exceed the benefits.

  While weightlifting does have its risks, they’re not nearly as bad as many people think. Ironically, research shows that when done properly, it’s actually one of the safest kinds of athletic activities you can do.