As a personal trainer and a good human, I have a responsibility to my clients to provide them with the best advice based on up-to-date science.
I recently saw a post on Facebook that generated a storm of comments about different approaches to fitness and health. I wanted to share some of my experience and insights as a 52-year-old professional with not only significant qualifications but also experience in health, fitness, and life.
I fully respect the comments on the page of one of the younger, very accomplished runners, Josh Maisey, but he did not pick up that I was talking about not running the fastest marathon but about long-term life health and weight loss.
Let me explain just part of my comments here, and I do hope it helps many of you who are currently struggling with what to believe.
My first meal of the day is often never before 11 AM. So if I have dinner at 6.30 the previous evening, I will often engage in a 17.5-hour fast most days of the week.
This requires no special commitment or restraint; it has simply become a way of life that helps me with anti-aging, cellular repair, and metabolic benefits.
I’m rarely hungry, and I can quite easily get on with my hours of training most mornings in a fasted state.
I also make a point to often fast for 1-2 hours after my training in many cases, especially after my occasional high-intensity workouts, to maximize the impact of the anabolic hormones that flood my bloodstream.
If I were to quickly eat a high-carbohydrate meal after such a session like most people, as per what I call conventional stupidity, then the insulin spike would clear the testosterone and human growth hormone out of my bloodstream, and we don’t want that.
Some of you will say, “But we have to restock our glycogen supplies fast!” There are two things to consider here.
First, I have trained my body to require less glucose, even at high intensity, because of a sustained pattern of what we call primal eating (primal eating is a low-carb, healthy fat approach) and sensible (not chronic) exercise patterns.
My compressed eating window, low-insulin-producing approach to nutrition, and training patterns mean that I require fewer carbs, which helps improve my insulin sensitivity.
So what does this mean?
It means that whenever I eat good-quality non-processed carbohydrates, they are readily accepted into my liver and muscle glycogen storage depots without my pancreas having to kill itself by producing insulin (remember, insulin is the thing that makes us FAT).
The cells are highly aware of the signals of insulin knocking at the door asking to deliver the precious cargo of carbohydrates, amino acids, or fat into the cells for storage.
Second, my high-intensity workouts, which happen only every 4-6 weeks depending on what stage of training I’m in, rarely last longer than 30-45 minutes, and they are planned with appropriate recovery so that I never run my glycogen stores down to the state where I am dying for a pizza or pasta (P.S.: I have not eaten pasta for 4 years and could not think of anything worse).
My abundant intake of vegetables every time I eat with great grass-fed meats, some seasonal fruits, and moderately starchy tubers provides all I need to keep my liver and muscle glycogen levels optimal, and I train 18 hours a week.
I don’t need to refuel my glycogen stores every day after every workout because I burn fat as fuel, not sugar. For me, there is plenty of time to recover completely before my next aerobic or high-intensity session.
One way to do this is to use a process called gluconeogenesis – the conversion of ingested amino acids and proteins into glucose on a moderate or as-needed basis.
This means that if I burn a large number of carbs (remember, good vegetables) in a workout and don’t shovel down the replacement amount right away, my body will adapt to make glucose internally and prioritize other fuel sources like fat and ketone bodies (this is what our bodies were made to do before we had supermarkets, 2-minute noodles, and protein shakes).
Here are my top 5 things to do if you don’t want to read the whole article.
But I love my high-intensity workouts every day – if I stop, I will get FAT or not lose weight! – Well, tell me, how is that working for you?
95% of the public has been fooled into the wrong approach, and in most cases, it just does not work. Thank you to the fitness industry and big processed food companies.
The chronic exerciser (high-intensity) and obsessive eater will probably experience something different than the way I live.
It is highly likely that over-fueling will occur often due to severe disturbance of appetite hormones caused by excessive carbohydrate intake and chronic training patterns.
The result is – you guessed it – love handles, belly fat, big bottoms, and man-boobs. The numbers don’t lie; the average Australian puts on .5 kg per year from the age of 35, and they lose muscle mass.
But remember, it’s not their fault – they are generally following the advice of the experts and they are not generally lazy.
Tell me, do any of you like being FAT and not being able to see your toes? For me, 4 years ago, I hated having a small belly – it was horrible. You can read my story here.
If you’re training hard and overfeeding yourself on carbs, you may not pack on weight every year, but as you get older, you will experience difficulty in removing unwanted fat from your body, especially that last 2-4 kg.
If you aren’t sure whether you’re overeating, simply monitor your body composition, not just your weight. Look in the mirror.
If you are not trending to where you want to be despite your devoted efforts to smash yourself in the gym or on the running track, then you are probably consuming too many carbohydrates and training too much, too hard, and you’re likely to be on your way to T2DM.
It’s not normal to be overweight – it is unhealthy.
So what do I do?
In my opinion, there are not enough people that are prepared to challenge what I call “conventional stupidity” and provide real advice to the general public, who have been dealing with weight problems for years. Because of this, the advice provided can actually do more damage than good.
This includes injuries through high-intensity workouts that often lack appropriate techniques and elevated cortisol (stress hormone) levels day after day, session after session, which often leads to adrenal fatigue, weight gain, self-doubt, depression, anxiety, and binge eating due to the false belief that we need to refuel straight after training.
As a fully qualified personal trainer, group fitness instructor, advanced level 1 Les Mills RPM instructor, spin coach, USA and Australian triathlon coach, and currently ranked number 4 in my 50-54 age group in the AWA Ironman 70.3 rankings, I do know a little about exercise and nutrition (about me).
Andre Obradovic is an ICF Leadership PPC Level Coach, A Primal Health Coach, a Certified Low Carb Healthy Fat Coach, & a Certified Personal Trainer. Andre is also a Founding member of the Dr. Phil Maffetone MAF certified Coach. He is an Ambassador for the Noakes Foundation, and a regular subject matter expert lecturer for the Nutrition Network (a part of the Noakes Foundation) Andre has completed 16 x 70.3 Ironmans and in 2017 he competed in the 70.3 Ironman World Championships. He has completed 18 Marathons and over 30 Half Marathons. Andre currently focuses his athletic competition on Track and Field with the occasional Marathon.
